


Clueless

by Sandra_Taylor



Series: Clueless [1]
Category: Clueless (1995), Original Work
Genre: Attempted Rape, Bisexual Character, M/M, Sex, aromantic side character, clueless - freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 08:22:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11528343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandra_Taylor/pseuds/Sandra_Taylor
Summary: When Blaire Fitz gets a C from her history class, she's ready to do something about it. Just not some extra work.In which her history teacher, mister Santorski, is not amused, her half-brother Aaron can see her plan failing from afar and her best friend Victoria is not helpful at all.Inspired by the 1995 classic Clueless, but with my own characters and eventual slash.





	Clueless

**Author's Note:**

> We start with Blaire, but I promise the story is not really hers and we soon move to someone better suited to tell it.
> 
> I'm still not sure about my English and this is my first longer story in it without beta, so please, bear that in mind when seeing some dumb mistakes.

Harvard-Westlake School is one of the best schools in LA. No, scratch that – it is the best school in LA. Alexander Fitz wouldn’t take anything less for his kids.

Blaire Fitz is a perfect daughter in a lot of ways. She cares for her father deeply, she’s popular among her classmates and she even tolerates her half-brother, who has the annoying habit of crashing at hers and daddy’s house during his weekends and holidays instead of going back to his mother. She is a kind, giving girl.

Sure, part of her popularity is due to her looks. Bright red hair, blue eyes and wicked smile are enchanting not only for high school boys. Plus, she jogs daily, she takes dancing classes as a part of her school PE and her best friend drags her to all sorts of events so her body is as fit as any model’s. She’s aware of her looks and she loves being young, slim girl.

But still, she is a kind girl.

So why does Mr. Santorski hate her so much?!

“He gave me a C!”

“Well, Blaire, you haven’t exactly prepared for the debate on Vietnam war.”

Victoria Rosenheim has been Blaire’s best friend since Ri’s father was an agent for Blaire’s mother. They played together when her mother was shooting one of her movies and became very close when her mother died when they were only nine years old.

Victoria isn’t slim in the same way Blaire is. Her body is muscled, but not overly so, she is tanned and strong, taller than Blaire, with long, dark hair, brown eyes and bright smile. She is energetic, constantly in motion and the most optimistic girl Blaire’s ever met.

Now however Blaire gives her best friend a hard look.

“I’m the best at debates!”

“Your only argument in Edward v Jacob thing was that Edward is played by Robert Pattison.”

“Oh shut up, Ri.”

“Plus, C’s not that bad. My only class with Santorski he almost gave me a D.”

“How did you make him cave?”

“We were his first class here, so he agreed not to count our worst grade plus I wrote a voluntary essay.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“Yeah, that’s so surprising. I heard the college kids are making a party this Friday. You think Aaron could get us in?”

“Please, I can get us in,” she rolls her eyes. “But first I need to figure out how to change Santorski’s mind.”

“Have you tried talking to him about extra credit?”

Blaire gives Victoria her last eyeroll before both of them have to go their own way – Blaire to her French class and Victoria to her history class. Blaire still thinks she’s lucky for not having Santorski as her history teacher this semester.

***

“What makes men happy?”

“In my experience? Blow jobs.”

Once again she rolls her eyes while sitting on the couch next to her brother. She reaches for the remote and changes the channel on TV.

Aaron is technically only her half-brother, but they both got the bright ginger hair from their father’s side of family. That’s where their similarities end, though. Where her physique is slim, he is a little bit bulky, still a little round even while working out. His face is rounded where hers is long, his eyes are deep brown and his smile is a little crooked, even though he had his teeth straightened in his teenage years. He knows how to clothe himself, but right now he’s wearing just his PJs and an old shirt from Disneyland.

“Hey! I was watching that!”

“Who cares what’s happening in Africa?”

“That was Middle East and my geopolitics professor does.”

“Why do you even take that class? Aren’t you a law student?”

“I’m undergraduate and Jess takes that class.”

“You still dating her?”

“Kinda,” he shrugs. Blaire shoots him another glare when he steals the remote, but she knows she can’t fight him fairly and win.

“Please tell me it’s not some weird sex thing.”

“Nope, just your normal friends with benefit arrangement.” He grins when she grimaces. “What, you a prude or something?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want dad to walk in on me…”

“That was an accident!”

And here, she has her remote back. She sticks her tongue out at him before going back to her cartoons.

“Okay, but seriously. I tried everything!”

“Seriously, try blow jobs. They don’t need to be that great to be… appreciated,” he wiggles his eyebrows at her. She giggles and elbows him.

“He’s my teacher, you pervert.”

“Happened before, or so I heard,” he shrugged.

Blaire pretends to puke, before she actually thinks about it. Then, she smiles wildly at her brother.

“Thank you, big brother.”

“Hey! I was joking! You’re not allowed to have sex until college, young lady.”

“Now you’re talking like our dad.”

“Yeah, cause if I don’t I will be the one celibate. For the rest of my life.”

***

Mr. Santorski isn’t exactly ugly. He’s probably over thirty, but he wears stylish clothes that hint at muscled body under it. His hair is dark and short, his eyes bright green and he wears stubble so well Blaire’s sure at least four of her classmates are in the class only for him. He’s not really Blaire’s type, but she can see the appeal.

But she wouldn’t go so far to try to set him up with her classmates. If only she knew some suitable woman…

There was the PE teacher, but there were rumors about her and the waitress from the café across the street. The English teacher was married for like a month, so there was no chance there. The science teacher is almost fifty and as much as she needs to get Santorski laid, she wouldn’t do that, either.

And then there is miss Smith. She’s young, this is her first year in the school and she’s quickly gaining a reputation of making math actually interesting. Plus, she’s not exactly hard to look at, either. She’s short, her clothes are more comfortable than chic, but Blaire can see the appeal. She has light brown hair, brown eyes, round face and warm smile. She mostly wears jeans, shirts and cardigans, which makes her look gentle and approachable.

Now, she just needs to figure out how to make the two of them meet accidentally out of school. And get them together. All before daddy will want to see her report card.

***

She is snapchatting with Ri about her outfit for school when daddy calls her. He’s on a big case so he’s mostly not home. Even now he’s obviously rushing – he’s tying his tie and has a light breakfast on the table in front of him that obviously wasn’t done by him. Blaire frowns, takes the coffee and instead pours him a juice. Coffee isn’t good for his blood pressure and Aaron knows it, damn it!

“What is that?” her daddy nods towards some papers right next to his breakfast. Blaire looks at them, frowning once more.

“Second notice…? I don’t remember getting the first notice!”

“The ticket is the first notice!” Daddy sighs and she bites her lip. She knows she shouldn’t get any ticket considering her daddy is DA and as such he needs a good reputation. But it’s not like she does it on purpose. She’s still learning, she has a right to do some mistakes, right? “You’re not driving alone anymore. I want an adult with you in car in every situation. And Victoria doesn’t count as an adult.”

“But daddy!”

“That’s all I have to say on the matter. Now I have to go.”

“No, you don’t!” Aaron is only in his jeans and his hair is still wet, when he bursts to the kitchen. “I haven’t made the breakfast just for you to not eat again. Blaire, say something!”

“Aaron’s right, daddy. Have you eaten yesterday? Like at all?”

“Now, kids, who’s the father there?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me? And where’s my coffee?”

Blaire gives him back his coffee while still trying to bully her daddy into eating something. She knows how he gets when he’s too deep in a case so she doesn’t feel that bad about it. Between her and Aaron they get him to eat half of the breakfast Aaron did for him before he has to get going. At least she gets breakfast out of it – Mel might be the cook of the house, but Aaron’s cooking is still pretty good. Plus, Mel doesn’t come in until afternoon to cook them dinner.

Okay, I’m definitely going with this, comes suddenly a snap of Ri in skinny jeans with a crop top with Batman’s symbol. That reminds her that she needs to finish her outfit and head to school. Plus, now she doesn’t even have a car! If only she knew someone who didn’t have anything to do and could make sure she makes it to the school in time…

“I need a ride.”

“And I need a sister who actually can knock, what’s your point?”

“Half sister, loser. I need a ride to school.”

“You could always ride a bus.”

“Yeah, as if. Come on.”

“Fine, but I need to get to campus asap, so we’re taking my Dodge, not your Jeep.”

“Whatever,” she rolls her eyes. “You ready?”

He just stares at her for a moment before looking at himself. He’s still half naked (and now she can see his tummy and hey – she told him not to eat the whole pizza!), because he’s been packing instead of dressing himself.

“Fine,” she sighs. “Five minutes!”

“You’re giving me orders, miss five second notices on a ticket?!”

“You gave them to daddy?”

“No, that would be the postman’s job. I just told him about them when I gave him the breakfast. You ate your half of it?”

“What do you mean my half of it?”

She might bitch a lot about Aaron living more with them than with his mom and about him only being her half brother, but really, he makes mornings more bearable.

***

“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, but thy eternal summer shall not fade,” reads Victoria out loud with a slight smirk. “Okay, that sounds old.”

“Hey, it’s like a thing, okay? A romantic thing,” replies Blaire, before she takes the note and gives it to miss Smith’s message box along with a single rose.

“Where did you find it?”

“Tumblr,” she shrugs, before hurrying away before anyone can see them anywhere near the box. They did type it and gave it anonymously, but still.

“Okay, so what’s your next move?”

“Not sure. Come here.” She stands so they can see miss Smith walking down the halfway. “You think I should like… give her some fashion tips?”

“Nah, looks like she has her fashion figured out. Not much you can do here. Plus, it obviously works for her, she’s cute in it.”

Blaire stashes that information for later use – she has no time to wonder about her best friend’s orientation, especially considering Voctoria doesn’t look bothered by it.

“Let’s hope Santorski agrees with you, then.”

***

Miss Smith looked thrilled by the note. She was definitely interested.

Now she only needs to make sure Mr. Santorski knows about Ms. Smith and that he takes interest. And Bailey has a plan.

It’s one of the last classes of the semester, so Mr. Santorski is doing review of tardies. Of course he is. He hates them, but considering his class is the first one in the morning, he’s mostly willing to not let them affect the grade. Sure, for that to happen you can’t have over fifty of them like Bryan.

“Miss Fitz,” he says and Blaire straightens in her chair. “You have two tardies.”

“I object, Mr. Santorski.” It takes a minute, but when he looks up he looks amused.

“Yes, miss Fitz?”

“Do you recall the dates of the alleged tardies?”

Santorski raises an eyebrow and… yes, Bailey can see the appeal. But still, he could be her… well, not father, but probably an uncle.

“One of them was last Tuesday.”

“But that’s just not fair, Mr. Santorski. I was just riding my cotton pony, so I needed to use a toilet.”

“Well,” licks Santorski his lips, “do you have a note from the nurse confirming your ladies’ problems at that date, miss Fitz?”

Bailey’s smile freezes on her lips. Officially they need to go to nurse for that, but nobody before asked for a note. Male teachers are generally too embarrassed and the female ones too understanding.

“No.”

“Do you have any eyewitnesses for your claim?”

Now she’s sure she’s all red in the face.

“No.”

“Then, miss Fitz, the two tardies stand. Surely you understand that I can’t excuse every tardy any girl asks me to just because she’s a lady and can hide behind her monthly problems.”

“Yes, Mr. Santorski.”

And there goes her plan. Damn that man!

***

“Seriously? That was your plan? Telling him your teacher complimented him?”

Aaron is laughing so hard he has to set the bowl full of popcorn on the table in front of them. They are watching some action movie he bullied her to as a compromise when she wanted to watch project runaway while he wanted to watch some even worse action movie. This one at least has Colin Firth in it.

“What’s wrong with that?” she pouts while braiding her hair. “At least he’d found she exists.”

“They’re both teachers at the same school. I’m sure he knows she exists.”

“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?!” she pushes her braid away angrily.

“What about nothing? What gives you the right to even do that?”

“It’s called matchmaking and it’s not so rare, you know.”

“In TV.”

“Oh please, I matchmake all the time.”

“Like?”

“Like… Kathy and Tim. They were together for whole two months.”

“Two months! Oh, what a miracle. And shush, now’s the Colin Firth scene.”

Blaire is kinda bored with the movie, but Colin Firth is always worth it. She and her brother usually don’t agree on which male celebrity is the new hot one, but Colin Firth is someone they can both agree on and can always watch if they don’t find anything else they both want to see.

“Seriously, sis. Why don’t you ask him about voluntary essay or some work for extra credit?”

She crosses her arms and doesn’t talk to him for whole ten minutes after that.

He has never understood. Her talent of persuasion is the only thing she has next to fashion. And every girl in Harvard-Westlake School has fashion.

***

Her school is situated in a great part of the city and is big enough so part of the complex is a beautiful garden. Pupils like to take their lunch there and even teachers like to sit around on the benches across the complex when they have free periods.

“So, what’s the plan?” asks Victoria when she finally makes it from the locker room. While Blaire likes to move like any other girl their age she doesn’t get why Victoria choose three PE classes that semester. She barely has any time for anything else and her parents aren’t happy. But that’s not Blaire’s problem.

“I made coffee,” she shakes with the thermos in her hand. “Come on, let’s give it to Santorski.”

“I thought you only buy coffee for yourself.”

“Yes, I do, but Aaron likes to have coffee before leaving the house, so we have this brand home that’s supposed to be really good. Mr. Santorski,” she smiles brightly at her teacher. He looks weary, but nods in her direction.

“Good afternoon, miss Fitz. What can I do for you?”

“Actually, Mr. Santorski, I was thinking about doing something for you,” she replies cheekily. “I was in hurry today, because I didn’t want to be late for your class,” she still didn’t forgive him for the thing with tardies, “so I picked the wrong thermos – instead of my tea I grabbed daddy’s coffee. Do you like coffee, Mr. Santorski?”

“Well, not from this cafeteria, but yes, I like coffee.” He seems amused, if little tired.

“Well, would you like this?” she extends the thermos in his direction. He looks at her for a while before taking the thermos. “You can take it on some bench here on fresh air. Look, there is only miss Smith.”

“I’m sure she would enjoy a cup, too,” adds Voctoria with a smile.

“Oh, no,” laughed Santorski. “I’m sure any teacher would pay in gold for a decent cup of coffee here, but I’m not giving anyone any part of it, if it’s half decent. Thank you, miss Fitz, it’s really nice of you. I’ll see you tomorrow morning – on time, I hope.”

“Well, that didn’t work out.”

“Shut up,” murmurs Blaire. Victoria just laughs. “Seriously, I’m out of ideas.”

“And time.”

“Seriously, Ri. Shut up.”

***

For all that Aaron claims to be independent and living in dorms, he spends an awful lot of time at their home.

“Could you do any more mess?” Blaire scrunches her nose as she comes into the kitchen. Aaron has music busting loudly and an apron on. He looks ridiculous in a pink apron with white spots, but it was a gift from Blaire. Sure, it was supposed to be a gag gift, but she likes that he actually uses it when he cooks in the house.

“And that’s all the thanks I get for saving your ass for giving Mel a free day when dad’s got an important guest coming for dinner?” He flicks water at her and she shrieks.

“Daddy didn’t tell me in time!”

“Oh, he did. You were just texting with Vic.”

“Texting? Who’s even texting nowadays?”

“So what were you doing?”

“Skyping.”

“You weren’t talking out loud.”

“Yeah, because we were writing to each other.”

“That’s chatting, isn’t it?”

She rolls her eyes and picks up a ringing phone.

“Fitz residence,” she sing-songs into the phone.

“Hi, sweetie. Is Aaron there?”

She snaps her eyes back to Aaron, who starts shaking his head the moment he recognizes the voice in the phone.

“Sorry, Natalie. Have you tried the dorm? Or that weird frat house he was so fascinated with during his last visit.”

Okay, that was during Christmas and she knows that ended when Aaron found out Tyler was not only in the closet, but outright homophobic in public. But Natalie not only doesn’t know that, but she also doesn’t know about him being here all the time.

Natalie sighs into the phone, but Blaire doesn’t feel that guilty about lying to her.

“Next time you talk to him can you tell him to call me? He’s not answering my calls.”

“Sure, will do. Bye, Nat.”

“Thanks,” smiles Aaron awkwardly at her before going back to preparing meat for dinner.

“So, what’s up with that? You got a new dad?”

“Yeah,” he snorts. “He’s only slightly older, but thinks that he can talk into my life just because he married mum. I mean – he’s a manager at Starbucks. And he treats his employees terribly!”

“What does Nat says to that?”

“Have you met my mum?” he snorts. “She doesn’t exactly care about people serving her.”

Blaire makes a face at that before snatching a carrot from a pile of vegetables Aaron has prepared for later.

“Anyway, enough of my mother’s drama. How’s your matchmaking doing?”

“Don’t. Even. Ask,” she sighs dramatically. “I gave him coffee and got Ri to like…indicate that miss Smith would like some, too.”

“Indicate?” Aaron smirks at her.

“My word for the day!” she smiles brightly at him. “Anyway – he absolutely refused to share the coffee. And I even got it myself.”

“You mean like buy it from Starbucks? You do know coffee in Starbucks is not really a coffee, right?”

“No, asshole, I made it myself.”

“You don’t have coffee here.”

“But you do.”

“You made him my coffee?!”

“Please, as if you have limited amount of it. Mel always buys it before we can run out.”

“Yeah, but still. It’s my coffee.”

“Whatever, freak. But what am I supposed to do?!”

“What about more clichés? See-through shirts, double dates, anonymous notes.”

“Ew, I can’t go on a double date with my teachers. And what do you think I am? I already tried anonymous note. But the shirt is a good idea.”

“I was mocking you.”

“Thanks, Aaron.”

“Don’t make your teacher’s shirt see-through! He might end up hating you even more!”

***

“Why exactly do I need to have your bag for that?” asks Victoria, obviously confused, when she takes Blaire’s bag and gives her her own.

“Because. Just… talk with miss Smith when I get to you, okay? Your homework or whatever. Also, buy some drink before and hold it opened right in front of her.”

“That’s so not gonna work.”

“It is! We even have similar bags!” she waves with Victoria’s bag in front of her, before turning around and walking out of cafeteria.

Okay, so her plan might be a little bit cheesy and a little too much complicated, but she’s getting desperate here. Daddy already asked about her report card and they’re going to send it home in ten days.

Luckily for her Santorski has a routine. And that means that at Wednesday, 12:20 he’s going to lunch. So she waits for him just a few feet away from the door to cafeteria.

“Mister Santorski!” she almost yells when he walks almost right next to her. “I’m so glad I run into you. I totally forgot to give you my homework! I’m so, so sorry, I was in the lesson and I do have it but I was just rushing out of the class and forgot to give it to you and…”

“It’s okay, miss Fitz,” and now she’s sure he sounds tired. “You can just give me your work now and I won’t fail you or give you less points for failing to give it to me in time.”

“Thank you, mister Santorski. Seriously, thank you so much.” She’s tumbling with Victoria’s bag now and struggling to open it. She should consider acting for her career. Her mother was an amazing actress after all. “I really need those points and… oh, sh… crap.”

“That’s not better, miss Fitz.”

“Sorry, mister Santorski, it’s just… this is not my bag.”

“Really?” he looks beyond tired right now. Almost resigned. “And whose bag is it?”

“My friend, Ri. We were having lunch together and… she’s still in the cafeteria! Please, mister Santorski, can we…”

“Lead the way, miss Fitz.”

She makes sure to hurry while looking back a few times to make sure Santorski is right behind her. When she sees Victoria, on her spot with opened bottle of Fanta right in front of miss Smith, watching her teacher speak about something quite passionately, she smiles at him and speeds a little bit, so when she bumps into Ri it looks convincing.

“Hey, Ri, I think you’ve got my… oh my God, I’m sorry. So sorry, miss Smith.”

She looks how the drink soaks into the math teacher’s white shirt and reveals a nude bra underneath it. Blaire can’t really see the appeal, but hey, to everyone what rocks their boat, right?

When she looks back at Santorski, he looks tired and annoyed, but he sighs, reaches into his pocket and gives miss Smith his handkerchief.

“Are you alright, miss Smith?”

“Yes, yes, of course I am.” She cleans herself a little bit, but mostly she just wraps her cardigan around herself.

“Do you have something to change into?”

“Not really. I’ve never really thought about needing extra t-shirt considering I teach math.”

“Well, I have some spare clothes in my cabinet. It won’t fit and I understand if you refuse, but… it’s dry.”

“Thank you, mister Santorski, I’d appreciate that.” She sounds really grateful.

“Sorry, miss Smith,” quips in Blaire. Smith just smiles at her, but Santorski actually gives her a long, intense look. “My homework, mister Santorski. If it’s still…”

“Yes, miss Fitz, I’ll take your paper now. Come on, miss Smith, this way.”

“It’s Elizabeth. Lisa, really.”

“Well, Lisa, nice to meet you. I’m Michael.”

Blaire smiles so hard she hardly notices when Victoria snatches her own bag and gives her hers back.

“I think I can hear wedding bells.”

Victoria just looks at her for a while.

“I think you’re delusional. He hardly even looked at her.”

“Please. Her bra was shoving. Guys dig that.”

Victoria just shrugs.

“Can we get back to our lunch now? Please?”

***

In next few days she sees them around campus together more than apart. They seem to have a good time, always chatting and Blaire’s absolutely sure Smith is flirting with the way she plays with her hair, cocks her head to one side or just looks at Santorski through her lashes. They both look… happier, more comfortable nowadays.

Blaire’s sure her mission is done here. And considering the rest of the teachers are actually impressed by her talent of persuasion she’s pretty happy about her report card.

She’s sure daddy’s gonna be proud.

So when the card actually arrives, she’s surprised.

“Blaire, is that you?!”

She frowns a little when she hears her daddy the moment she comes home from school. She knows he planned to go through some papers in his home office, but he usually gets so absorbed in it she’s lucky if he gets to dinner on his own. Most of the time she needs to go get him.

“Yes, daddy?” she smiles at him lightly when she sees the half empty glass of juice on his desk. She tries to have healthy food in the house and Mel happily helps her but she’s always glad when daddy does it on his own.

“I’ve just got your report card. What is that C minus?”

“C minus?” Okay, so maybe she shrieks a little. But really – minus?!

Daddy gives her her card and she quickly grabs it. And here it is. Minus.

Reacts poorly to criticism, her arguments are unresearched and chaotic.

“That’s not what he gave me!”

“Well, maybe you had something important in class since then that you didn’t do as good as you could?”

They did write a test and had one more debate, but she doesn’t think she did worse than any other time. It wasn’t so bad that he had to lower her grade!

“But… I did manage go from B to A in PE and from C to B in Science and from C to A in Spanish.”

“Yes, sweetie, you did good in there, but you really need to do something about the history.”

“I know, daddy. I’m sorry.”

And she tried. She really, really tried! And she thought it was gonna pay off. It all looked so promising!  
Daddy talks to her for a while about responsibilities and how she needs better grades if she wants to get to a good college (she doesn’t even know what she wants to do!) and how she needs to really apply herself, get some sense of direction.

So naturally when she finally gets into the living room, after showering and putting on older leggings and some sweater, Aaron is there, eating cereals and watching baseball.

“We’re watching Bridget Jones,” she declares and plops right next to him. He frowns and opens his mouth to argue, but then he looks at her.

“Should I get the ice cream?”

“Asshole. Just give me the cereals.”

He complies without a word and Blaire just slunches and after a while outright cuddles Aaron. She gets like that every once in a while (mostly when her PMS gets really bad) and she has him nicely trained by now. So he throws his arm around her shoulders and doesn’t say a word for a while.

“He gave me a C minus. On my card it was C and I worked so hard to make it better, to make him happy. And he gave me a fucking minus.”

“Language, Blaire.”

“You fucking kidding me?”

He rolls his eyes, but seems amused.

“I told you matchmaking is not the best way to try to up your grades.”

“No, you told me their private life is none of my business. Ri told me that.”

“And you haven’t listened to either of us. Anyone told you you’re stubborn as a mull?”

“Don’t even start. I’m fucked.”

“You could always ask for some extra credit work.”

“Now? Don’t you think it’s a little late for that?”

“No, not really. You can always ask.”

“He hates me.”

“Why would he hate you?”

“He always looks at me like he expects something terrible to happen and he actually made my grade worse!”

“You’re being too dramatic.”

“Yeah, sure. Hugh Grant or Colin Firth?”

“What even is that question? Colin Firth all the way.”

“Hey! It’s a fair question. Hugh Grant is hot.”

“Maybe, but have you seen Colin Firth? His… grace, his legs?”

Aaron keeps fighting with her playfully and is relieved when he sees her laughing not long after their Grant v Firth debate.

He knows he’s gonna do something about Blaire’s history class. He’s not really happy about it and while he knows he can let Blaire handle it on her own (and he probably should so she can learn from it), he can’t let her be this hopeless.

Dad’s probably right about him spoiling her, but he can at least try. If it doesn’t work out and the teacher kicks him out, he can at least say he tried.

***

Aaron used to go to Harvard-Westlake himself, so he knows his way around campus. But when he was here, there was no mister Santorski. He goes to some offices of his old history teachers, but most of them are still here and in place of old Mrs. Taylor’s office is office of some science teacher. So he has no choice but to ask.

“Hey, where do I find mister Santorski?” he asks some guy in a football jacket who’s just going around.

“Who’s asking?”

“None of your business,” he replies probably a little bit defensively. The guy lifts an eyebrow at him. He rolls his eyes. “Okay, whatever. Are you gonna tell me or should I go ask someone else?”

“Up one floor, to the left, it’s almost at the end of the hall.”

“Thanks. Nice jacket,” he winks at the boy before turning around and hurrying to the stairs.

He finds the office right where the boy said he would. It’s second last door on the left in the hall. He checks the name next to the door before knocking. No point in drawing it out. He also doesn’t wait for the answer before opening the door and coming in.

“Ever heard of knocking?” comes grumpily from the only table in the room.

“Yeah, I did that.”

“What’s the point of knocking if you don’t wait for the answer?” Only in that moment the man looks up and… fuck. In all her rambling about her teacher Blaire forgot to mention how hot said teacher is?!

“Oh… yeah, right, sorry. It’s just… well, in college you either come in or you’re fucked. Basically.”

“Yeah, I remember that.”

And fuck, his smile comes with crinkles around his clear green eyes and how is it that hot?!

“So, what can I do for you, mister…”

“Fitz. Aaron Fitz.”

“Oh.” And the bright smile of the man fades away and is replaced by a frown and tight lips. Okay, maybe Blaire is right and the man really hates her. “You’re here on behalf of miss Fitz, I assume.”

“Yeah. She doesn’t know, though.” That seems to surprise the man. What does Blaire call him? Santorski? “I understand why you gave her C and even why you gave her the minus after… everything.”

“You mean after she tried to set me up with Lisa.” Santorski seems weary, but amused nonetheless.

“Yeah, that.” Aaron sighs a little before pointing at the chair in front of his table. Santorski is still sitting. “Can I sit?”

“Be my guest. So, what do you want me to do? Give her B like she demands since I told her her research is messy and her arguments undocumented?”

“No. Well, yes, but not like that. Can you give her like… extra credit work or something like that? Write an essay, prepare a presentation or whatever it is high school teachers nowadays see as a fit for extra credit?”

“What were you doing for extra credit?”

“Who said anything about me needing extra credit?”

Are they flirting? They are definitely flirting, right? At least Aaron is flirting. He really needs to concentrate more. He’s not here for the hot teacher, he’s here for his sister. Right, that should work.

“Weren’t you the star of a school football team?” And yes, Santorski is definitely checking him out. Aaron is so grateful for not skipping gym for some time now.

“Baseball and not exactly a star,” he says with a smile. “And as it happens, I had to keep my grades straight or I’d be off the team.”

“That’s clever.” Santorski looks at him with a light smile, before straightening up and laying his hands on the desk. “I’m open to giving students extra work. In fact, I was expecting miss Fitz to be one of the first ones to ask for it. For all her fault I can’t say she lacks ambition.” Aaron smiles. That’s his sister. “However, I usually expect students to ask for that kind of extra credit.”

“I know and I understand. Blaire’s just embarrassed now that her matchmaking shenanigans didn’t work out.”

“She should be,” grumbles Santorski lightly. Aaron’s not sure if he was supposed to hear that. He snorts.

“I know. It’s just the latest thing she just loves to do. So I thought I’d ask.”

“Okay,” nods Santorski after a while. “I’ll give it to her without question. But she needs to be the one to ask.”

Aaron thinks about it for a while, but nods.

“Thank you, mister Santorski.”

Santorski’s lips twitch in a smile.

“It was nice meeting you, mister Fitz.”

Aaron twitches a little bit under the name. He’s still not used to people calling him that. But he waves at the man before quickly leaving his office.

This was not as bad as he thought it would be.

***

He makes sure to be home that afternoon. Blaire might bitch all she wants, but dad made sure that he feels home here, so he’s not gonna call it anything else just so Blaire feels better.

“You’re still here? Don’t you have any other fridge to steal food from?”

“Have you seen the fridge in my dorm?” snorts Aaron. “I wouldn’t eat food from there if you paid me.”

“Good, you might actually lose some weight then.”

He pushes her around before sitting at the table. He smiles when Mel gives him a glass full of homemade lemonade.

“Gracias, Mel.”

“De nada. Y no la escuches, eres perfecta como eres.” (You’re welcome. And don’t listen to her, you’re perfect the way you are.)

Aaron listens to Blaire and Mel bickering in Spanish. He knows Mel learned English ages ago (she talks to him in English when it’s only the two of them), but it was a good practice for Blaire. And Aaron didn’t mind learning few phrases himself.

“So, I talked to Santorski about your extra work.”

He’s most amused when she almost drowns on a sip of water.

“You what?”

“Yes, I went to your school, get over it. He’s ready to give you extra work and he won’t even say anything else about it. You just need to ask.”

Blaire just opens and closes her mouth a few times.

“I told you I don’t wanna ask!”

“No, you said you didn’t want to do it now after everything. So, I made sure he wouldn’t hold your matchmaking against you. But just so you know – you were right. He probably hates you.”

“Thank you,” murmurs Blaire almost too quietly for Aaron to hear. Hu just shrugs.

He thinks about teasing her about not telling him that Santorski is hot, but… that can wait. He should get back to dorms now before he runs out of time for studying for midterms. He skips class regularly, so he’s not bothered by him not being there for a few days. But the upcoming midterm? He seriously needs to go back and take care of his things instead of Blaire’s. He’s sure she can handle it from here.

***

The next time he comes home it’s almost three weeks later. Sure, midterms lasted only a week, but he needed some time before to prepare and he might have taken some time after to celebrate. He went to a party and then spent two days almost unconscious. He thinks he didn’t leave the party for hours, but it’s a little blurry after midnight.

So when he comes home he’s hungry and in a serious need of a shower. So of course he walks right into living room when there’s not only Blaire, but also some girl he’s never seen before in his life. She’s short, her curves are more noticeable than Blaire’s, her hair is in a small afro and her eyes are brown and sparkling. Her smile is blindingly white against her dark skin and she seems to vibrate with energy.

“Oh. Hi.”

“Aaron!” Blaire’s on her feet in a moment. “Meet Layla, our new classmate. Layla, this is Aaron, my half-brother who’s, technically, in college. Though he’s here so often I don’t believe his college exists.”

“Suck it, lil sis. Nice to meet you,” he smiles and waves at Layla. She giggles a little and waves shyly back. Aaron mentally shrugs. He’s used to this reaction. Especially from Blaire’s friends. Only Victoria has known him since they were so little it didn’t matter that he was a boy. “I’m starving, so I’ll just…,” he gestures towards kitchen.

He’s not surprised when Blaire follows him to the kitchen.

“So? What do you think?”

“I think you’re going back to your Barbie days. Those clothes… they’re yours, aren’t they?”

“She didn’t have anything for our workout, so I lent her some,” she shrugs. “We’re doing a makeover.”

“We?”

“Me and Ri. It’s so exciting. You should see Layla in her old clothes, she looked so out of place in our group.”

“Blaire, every normal human being looks out of place in your friend’s group,” he rolls his eyes. “How it went with your extra credit project?”

In a moment Blaire’s smile is gone. She waves her arm in an annoyed manner and set her lips to a thin line.

“He gave me an F. Thanks for that, by the way, I really needed an extra project that would worsen my grade.”

“Hey, how was I supposed to know that he’d fail you for an extra work?”

And seriously, now the theory of him hating her made more sense than ever. And he’s not gonna just sit around and watch that happen.

***

This time he actually knows his way to the office, so he wastes no time and heads right there. He has every intention to not even knock this time, but in the end he does knock. Everything can be made better by good manners, right?

“Come in.”

And look at him, he was so deep in thoughts that he even waited for the word this time.

“Mister Santorski.”

“Mister Fitz.” And this time he sounds so tired Aaron could apologize and back away in a moment. If it wasn’t for his sister. “I assume this is about miss Fitz’s regrettable extra work.”

“How can you fail someone on extra work?”

“Once extra work is given to the pupil, it is work as any other and it needs an appropriate grade. I shouldn’t be doing this considering you’re not her legal guardian, but…”

With that he gives Aaron Blaire’s homework.

“History of native people with emphasis on relation to white men? That’s a subject I didn’t properly study till college!”

“That’s a sad failure of our education system. My problem with miss Fitz was how little research she’s doing for her schoolwork and how convinced she is she’s right. So I wanted to give her something to challenge her. Something where she needs to do her research and something she needs to think about in a way she isn’t used to. Native people were the best choice I could come up and it was perfect for my subject. If you wanna argue the grade, you can read her work. I have a class now, but I’ll be back in less than an hour. You’re welcome to stay here.”

They look at each other for a while, before Aaron nods slightly. Santorski then takes his things and leaves the room. Aaron sits in the chair he sat in the last time and flips the paper open.

It doesn’t take long for him to see that Santorski was right. Blaire writes about the arrival of Europeans as the best thing that could happen to native people and then proceeds to write about everything they ever did to them as a good thing. Aaron easily sees himself from a few years back when he took himself a class about native people. It was mostly because his then-girlfriend was interested. The main difference was that after reading the material that was requested he changed his mind. Blaire… Blaire either didn’t do any reading, or it had no influence on her paper.

He doesn’t need to read it more times than once and it doesn’t take him that long to read it the first time. So ten minutes later he’s done and has nothing to do. He could just leave and go home, but… he doesn’t really want to. He’d have to leave the office unlocked until Santorski comes back. And he’d like to see Santorski again. He’s hot and they were flirting the last time he was here. He hopes for something similar now, that he isn’t so damn pissed. He knows that nothing will happen. Santorski’s Blaire’s teacher and he’s like… what, seven years younger? Still in college while the man is a teacher. There is no way something is happening.

But still. The flirting was nice.

So he waits. For a while it’s okay but then he gets bored. He looks at some books around the office (most of them are history textbooks, but he also sees some fiction here – mostly history related, but also some proper fiction close to Santorski’s own chair), at the diploma the man has hanging at the wall and finally at his desk. It’s mostly boring, with kids’ homework all around it and a notebook at the center. No photos, no personal belongings. What is that man, a robot?

He ends up sitting in the man’s chair. It’s more comfortable than the one he was sitting in originally. He’s playing some games on his phone for the last minutes of his wait.

When the door opens, he lets go of the phone and it falls to the ground.

“Come on, dude! I was so close to my record.”

He is down to pick up his phone, but when no reply comes, he looks up from above the table. Santorski stands in front of it from the other side. There’s a pile of papers that he had to just dump there and an amused smile on his face. It’s a nice change from the frown.

“You’re sitting in my chair.”

“It’s a pretty comfortable chair,” smiles Aaron cheekily. Santorski raises his eyebrows, but he seems amused.

“I see you grew beard since the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah.” Aaron runs his hand through his rusty beard. It’s nothing much, he just hasn’t had that much time for personal hygiene in the last few… weeks. He took a shower last night, but he was too tired to shave. And today he was rushing out of the door to get to Harvard-Westlake to make it there and back before Blaire’s back from school.

Admittedly, he woke up a lot later than what he hoped. “Makes me look older.”

“All I see is the lighter shades of red that grace miss Fitz’s head.”

“And I assume you don’t like that.” He really needs to shave. Now if only he knew where he left his shaving kit…

“Looks good on you. Brings out your eyes.” With that Santorski sits down on the chair in front of his own table. “So…? You still want to yell at me about being unfair to your sister?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Aaron cringes a little when he thinks about it. “The essay… I see the reason behind you giving it to her and… it’s rubbish. I know she’s still a sophomore, but… still.”

“Yes. I was prepared for her questions, but she just… stormed away.”

“She’s used to people adoring her, loving her. Including her teachers.”

“Including you?” Santorski asks, eyebrows raised, but he seems amused.

“Well, I am her big brother. If nothing else, it gives me the right to be… slightly overprotective.”

“Slightly?” Now Santorski is outright smiling. It’s a bright thing, made even brighter by his slight, dark stubble. Aaron suddenly remembers his one hook-up with older man with a stubble and how he had burns around his mouth and all around his chest the next day. He didn’t really like that feeling, but right now he’d like that stubble against his cheek. “I had overbearing parents coming at me and it was less than this.”

“Sorry, it’s just… dad’s busy most of the time, so I try to be… involved. Keeping an eye on her, you know how teenagers get.”

“Speaking from your own experience?”

“I might have had a pregnancy scare when I was studying here, so… yeah.”

“Wow. And here I was thinking you are the good one.”

“We all have our good side and our not-so-good side, don’t we?” he winked at the teacher before standing up. “I’m sorry about bursting in like that. I get overprotective and there was no reason to be so, so… I won’t be doing so anymore.”

“But you’ll still be worried.”

Aaron looks at Santorski for a while, before smiling.

“That’s what brothers do. I’ll deal with it.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t you give me your number and if something’s seriously wrong, I’ll call you? You know, so you’re still in the picture but don’t come across as an overbearing parent?”

He looks at him once more. Santorski looks relaxed, he’s sitting with his legs apart and a lazy smile on. Aaron can dig that.

“Okay.” He takes his phone and gives him his number. Then he calls himself, to make sure he gave the right number and to give himself his number in return. He probably won’t use it (he’s brave, but not let’s-flirt-with-my-sister’s-teacher brave), but it’s nice to have it.

“Aaron?” Santorski asks a little confused.

“My name, remember? Mister Fitz is my dad.”

“In that case… I’m Michael.”

And that smile is definitely flirtatious.

***

Aaron really, really doesn’t want to pine for his sister’s teacher.

But he needs to be honest with himself. He is pining. So much even Jessika notices. When she stops him during their normal hook-up call, saying he’s obviously not into it, he needs to seriously think about his priorities. Half of his friends are jealous of his arrangement with her and to be honest, he’s not really into it in that moment.

That means going out and pulling someone wouldn’t work either. He tried to find himself some guy that wouldn’t come with strings of his sister, but that just didn’t work.

So really, what is it he’s doing?

“You’re pathetic,” is a simple answer of his best friend. They’re playing GTA on Aaron’s old console, eating food Sabih’s mum made him to take back to dorms. Aaron’s skipping his class on sci-fi novels and Sabih’s skipping anatomy class (or one of them, anyway) for that food and some quality GTA time. They haven’t had time for that for some weeks now. Sabih’s telling Aaron all about his sister’s boyfriend who annoys the living hell out of him and Aaron’s complaining about his love life.

“No, seriously, if you saw him, you’d see reason.”

“I really doubt that,” snorted Sabih. “Your type in men is weird.”

“I don’t have a type.”

“Point, but still – those you like are either weirdos, assholes or too old for you, apparently.”

“Michael’s not old, okay? He’s like… thirty, maybe?”

“That’s still old.”

“Fuck you. And anyway – how old was that PA you were going after last semester?”

“Twenty-eight. That’s still not thirty!”

“Yeah, by two years!”

He also needs to work on his chirps. It’s been a while since he was in a locker room, considering he was never good enough to keep playing in college, but still, this is just pathetic.

“What’s so attractive about him anyway?”

“I don’t know. He’s… handsome and intelligent.”

“That’s it? Bro, if you get crush on someone for so little, you’re seriously pathetic.”

“Oh, as if you’re any better. How long it took you to crush on that PA? Five seconds?”

Thankfully that’s interrupted by Aaron’s ringtone. However, he is feeling much less grateful when he sees who’s calling.

“Shit.”

“What?”

“It’s him.”

Sabih is laughing out loud the moment Aaron says it.

“Shut up! What can he want?”

“Maybe Blaire fucked up another test?”

“He wouldn’t call for that.”

“Are you gonna answer it or what?”

He does. His hands aren’t shaking and how bad is it that he’s actually grateful for that?

“Yes?”

“Aaron, right?” comes from the other end of the call. It sounds… worried?

“Yeah, that’s me. Michael? What’s going on?”

“I think it’d be better if you just came here. It’s Blaire. I… I really think you should come here.” He sounds nervous, which is something Aaron has never associated with him.

“Okay, but I’m on campus. It’ll take me more than an hour to come.”

“Okay, I’ll keep her in my office. Just… try to come as soon as possible?”

“Sure, I’ll be there,” he’s already looking for his car keys. “Can you maybe tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. I found her in a hall during a class, she was crying. When I asked if I can do something for her, she asked for you.”

“Okay, I’ll be there. Going out of the door now.” With that he ends the call. “Sorry, it’s Blaire.”

“Whatever you say,” winks Sabih at him. “Have fun!”

Aaron would appreciate that if he wasn’t so worried about his sister. Blaire and crying? In public?!

He makes it in under fifty minutes and doesn’t get one ticket out of it. Dad would be proud. This time, he doesn’t knock. He’s sure Michael will understand.

“Okay, I’m here.”

“Wow. Don’t kill yourself in your haste here.”

He looks at Blaire, unbelieving.

“I break every single rule to get here this fast because you cried in public and this is all thanks I get?”

“I didn’t cry!”

“Michael!” he turns to his only salvation in this argument. “Tell her she cried.”

“I so did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“If I knew that would happen, I wouldn’t call you,” comes from Michael, but he sounds highly amused. Blaire shuts up at that, which seriously worries Aaron.

“Sorry about that. The brat brings out the worst out of me.”

Blaire just grumbles something, but doesn’t say a word and sips from her mug. Aaron frowns at that.

“You want some tea, too? I can go do some… or coffee?”

Aaron knows this has little to do with tea or coffee and more to do with giving them time to talk. He smiles gratefully at Michael.

“Coffee would be nice, thank you.”

The moment he walks out the door, Blaire sets her mug on the table before her, gets up and hugs Aaron tightly. He’s not sure what to do, but he holds her just as tight.

“I thought he and Layla would be great together. I tried every trick in my book and then he… he kissed me and I didn’t want that, but he was stronger and…”

She sobs and he holds her even tighter. He wants to murder the guy, but this right now is more important.

“Blaire, what happened?”

“Nothing. I didn’t… I didn’t let him. Your move worked.” She laughs through her sobs and he just closes his eyes. He taught her a little bit of self-defense, just in case. He’s glad it worked, but pissed she actually needed to use it. “But he… touched me. It took a while and I… I still feel him, his hands. Aaron, I just want to go home.”

“Sure, we’ll go home. Do you have everything you need?” She nods, silently. “Do you know where teachers do the coffee?” He wants to get her home as soon as possible, but he doesn’t want to leave without a word. He also needs to check that it’s okay for them to leave. Blaire still has a few classes left. She shakes her head. “Okay, so let’s just… sit down, okay? You can finish your tea.”

Blaire grumbles, but in the end she sits back in her chair and sips her tea. She keeps both her hands tightly grasps around the mug. Aaron frowns.

“Okay, walk me through this. What happened?”

“Me and Justin were running late for our science class. Then he stopped me, said he knew I was into him and that he was really into me. Kissed me. I tried to get away, told him I’m not into him. He got me against a wall and kissed me again.” She’s saying all of it in a monotone voice. Aaron hates it. “Then his hands got a little lower and I kicked him. He yelled at me a little bit, slapped me a little and…”

“He what?!”

“It’s not a big deal, it wasn’t that hard,” shrugs Blaire. “He left and next thing I know, Santorski’s there. You know, he’s actually pretty decent.”

“You say that because he made you tea,” snorts Aaron.

“No, really. He helped me up, took my things for me and let me be in his office until you came. He didn’t ask much and even tried to make conversation. Awkwardly, weirdly, but still. And called you the moment I asked for you. Literally the moment.” She frowns a little before looking at him with a slight smile. “In fact, he didn’t even ask for your number.”

“Well, obviously I’m an overprotective parent and he didn’t want me to come at him every time you fail an assignment.”

“I fail?”

“Sorry, sweetie, but your extra work? That sucked.”

“You read it?”

“Ye… I mean, no, of course not, I’m not your legal guardian so I don’t have the power.”

Blaire’s looking at him unbelieving while he’s trying to look innocent.

“You are into my teacher!”

“Could you be any louder? My friend in my dorms haven’t heard you.”

“You are! Oh my god, Aaron!”

“I’m not doing anything, okay? He’s your teacher and I respect that.”

“Yeah. And he’s old.”

“He’s not… you know what? You and Sabih can hold hands while going to hell.”

“Well, you’re crushing on a teacher, so I’m sure you’re the one going to hell.”

“He’s not my teacher. And he’s only like… what, six years older? That’s not much.”

“That’s not what you said to me the last time.”

“You were fifteen and he twenty-one. That’s different.”

“Oh sure, now that it suits you, it’s different? You know what? You are turning into another parent.”

“Seriously, Blaire. You start that and you’ll end up grounded.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, believe me, lil sis. I would.”

“Nice to see the atmosphere here is up a few points.”

When they turn towards the door, Michael stands there with two mugs of coffee. Aaron shifts uncomfortable. Coffee for two? That sounds dangerously close to date.

“Thank you, mister Santorski,” smiles Blaire shyly before setting her empty mug on the table.

“But we’d better go,” finishes Aaron, when Blaire doesn’t say anything else. “I’d like to take Blaire home before the school ends. I’m sorry about the coffee.”

“It’s okay. We’ll just have to get it some other day.” He smiles good naturally at him before setting both cups on the table. Aaron gulps lightly before turning his eyes back to Blaire. She’s smirking.

“Yeah, right. We’d… we need to go. Thanks for the call.”

“Any time.” And did he just wink? Aaron seriously needs some space right now. “I’ll pardon miss Fitz from the rest of her day. It was nice seeing you again, Aaron.”

“You too… Michael,” he adds slightly unsure. But then he hurries Blaire away.

“He likes you, too,” is the first thing Blaire says when they’re in his car.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Also – what are we? Middle schoolers?”

Blaire just smiles.

“Don’t even think about matchmaking.”

Blaire’s smile fades.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to even think about matchmaking for some time now.”

***

Once they get home Blaire heads right to shower. Aaron sits down at the couch and turns on TV. It’s on some news channel (dad probably had it on while preparing for work that morning) and he’s not really bothered about changing it. Instead he pulls out his phone.

He knows he should have told Michael more than he did that afternoon, but he was too focused on Blaire back there. So it’s time for proper thanks.

_Thanks for calling me, I really appreciate it. Sorry for rushing out_

The moment he sends it he wants to take it back. Sorry for rushing out? It’s not like they were making any plans together or something like that. It was expected of him to go as soon as possible.

It’s all made worse when Michael doesn’t answer for a while. He’s probably teaching, Aaron knows that. But still. It doesn’t help him feel better.

“We’re watching Mean Girls. And then maybe Princess Diaries.”

“If you seriously need Anne Hathaway, can we watch the latest Batman?”

Blaire looks at him intensely for a while, before nodding.

“After Princess Diaries, though.”

Aaron grunts, but lets his hand slide across Blaire’s shoulders.

“So… ice cream?”

“Shut up, I deserve it.”

“Whatever you say, sis.”

The irony is, he actually likes Mean Girls. It’s an iconic movie and he actually remembers time when Lindsey Lohan was cool. So he spends most of it texting with Sabih. Perks of having a best friend who also has a sister. They mostly bitch to each other about the movies their sisters force them to watch, but they both have their guilty pleasures. Mean Girls just happens to be one for both of them.

So when a text comes at the end of the movie, he doesn’t think much of it. Until he actually reads it.

_It’s no problem. Truth be told I was glad for the excuse to call you. Would be better in other circumstances, but still. And like I said – we’ll just have to get our coffee some other time ;-)_

Aaron is left speechless. Is that… a winking emoji?

“Did you know that the actress of Regina is like… twice the age of Lindsey Lohan?” asks Blaire suddenly. She does that mostly when he’s least expecting it.

“Yeah, no kidding. Have you seen her wrinkles?”

“Fuck you, she doesn’t have any wrinkles.”

She’s right, she doesn’t. But Aaron just likes winding her up.

He gets back to the text and ignores a new one from Sabih. How the hell is he supposed to answer?

_Are you asking me on date, mister Santorski?_

He officially has no idea what he’s doing. He swore he wouldn’t flirt with him and here he is, doing just that. He just hopes Micheal will see it that way, too.

_Are you interested, mister Fitz?_

He smiles at that. Yes, he’s definitely interested. But…

_I’m supposed to be at dorms right now. Midterms are over, but…_

_No, I get it. Raincheck?_

_Raincheck. But I am usual millennial who brings his phone everywhere_

_Noted. How’s miss Fitz doing? Seemed like your presence helped_

_If this is gonna work, you seriously need to stop calling her that_

With that, they proceed to text away. Aaron’s having even better time than when he was texting Sabih. When he tells him that he gets a handful of not exactly polite emojis.

This time Blaire actually surprises him with a pillow in his face.

“Hey!”

“I’m saying that I’m calling that Italian place you love so much. Who are you texting anyway? You’re not usually that involved when texting Sabih.”

“Yeah, well, I’m texting him.”

With that he quickly comes back to his conversation with his best friend.

“And you don’t have that stupid smile on your face. Are you texting Santorski?” She’s outright smirking.

“That’s mister Santorski for you. And it’s none of your business.”

“Oh, my big bro is in love.”

“Don’t. It’s… not so easy. We hardly know each other.”

“And? When it’s meant to be…”

“That’s not how it works,” he sighs. He knows teenagers are supposed to be naïve, but this is a little bit much, isn’t it? “What if he seriously hates you? What if he’s biphobic?” Wouldn’t be the first time. “What if he’s like… crazy religious? Or republican?”

“I… don’t think he’s either of those.”

“But you don’t know it. Neither do I. That’s what dating’s for.”

“Falling in love,” sighs Blaire dreamily.

“Getting to know each other. And if you’re lucky… falling in love is next.”

They’re silent for a while.

“You think that’s how it went with mummy and daddy?”

“I don’t think. I know. I was there, remember?”

“You were like five.”

“People say a lot of things in front of children,” he shrugs. “Especially parents who don’t like each other that much to start with.”

“Yeah. Sorry. That divorce couldn’t be easy on you.”

“Wasn’t that bad. Mum and dad… they never loved each other. Not the way dad and Claire did. They made sure I had my time with a psychologist and the atmosphere back home was much better once dad was gone. So really, it wasn’t all bad.”

“Plus, dad never gave up on you.”

“You divorce wives, not children,” they both say at the same time with a wide smile.

“I’m glad he had you here for every other weekend and two weeks during a summer. You’re a fine brother.”

“And you’re annoying, but cute sister. And what else one needs from their younger sibling?”

“Loser.”

“Brat.”

***

He heads back to dorms the moment The Dark Knight Rises ends. Which is a little bit later than he planned, so he ends up writing a paper till three in the morning and then getting up not five hours later for his morning class. Time management is not his strong suit.

He gets to the class in time (barely) with a big cup of coffee from a close coffee shop and sits in the middle row, close to windows. When he pulls up his phone, there’s a text already waiting for him.

_Why is it so hard to come in time to school? Some of my students look like they might kill me every time I tell them they’re late_

He chuckles, sips from his coffee and opens his notebook before writing back.

_Don’t you hate it when someone states the obvious? Also 9AM classes are torture, don’t pretend otherwise_

The professor starts talking then and Aaron is trying to pay attention, he seriously is. But the coffee is too good and Sabih is complaining about his class and really – how is he supposed to pay attention to geopolitics? And why did he choose that class again?

Oh, right. Jess. She’s sitting two rows in front of him and furiously scribbling something into her notebook. Aaron knows they’re not notes because of the set of her mouth. He sighs, closes his notebook and slips next to her. The professor definitely notices, but whatever.

“What are you drawing?”

“None of your goddamn business.”

“Oh, come on. I thought I apologized.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. This isn’t about you. And piece of advise – if you don’t want to have sex, don’t say yes to a booty call.”

“Sorry. I can promise that I won’t agree to any of your booty calls for a while now.”

With that Jess stops and looks at him. Her high cheekbones and toned skin are something his friends are constantly talking about, but he likes her dark, deep eyes better. She has a little too big ears that she hides behind her long, dark, silky hair and lips too thin, but they create a bright smile. Now though she’s burning him with her stare.

“Aaron Jonathan Fitz,” he knew he shouldn’t have told her his whole name, but he was drunk that time he did it anyway, “are you seeing someone?”

“No… not yet, anyway,” he adds quickly when she opens her mouth to argue. “I met someone… he’s my sister’s teacher.”

“Wow, you like it complicated.”

“Tell me about it. He called me yesterday because Blaire was in trouble and then I texted him to say thanks. So now we… text. I guess. He hasn’t texted in a while, but I think that’s because he has a class now.” With his sister. That’s not weird at all.

“You like him.” Her smile is so bright right now she has dimples. Aaron can definitely see why half his friends have crush on her. He’s just really glad he’s not one of them considering her no-relationships policy.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. But considering I have to focus on my studies, texting is all I can do for now. And probably for as long as my sister is in one of his classes.”

“Well, there’s always sexting.”

“Don’t even, Jess. What about you? What are you so angry about?”

“I was… I couldn’t get my paper right, so I thought what the hell, let’s have sex. And because my usual booty call wasn’t available, I went out and pulled. And the guy somehow got my number and he’s been calling all day yesterday and five times today already. And like… you weren’t even that good, you loser, why do you think I’d like to meet with you again?”

“Well… thanks, I guess,” snorts Aaron. “We can always try the tactic from last time?”

The last time that happened, the guy went further than calls. He went for dick pics. So, Aaron took her phone and send the guy a few dick pics himself. That was the end of it.  
Now it makes Jess snort and try to stop her laugh.

“No, I don’t think that would help with this one. He actually made me breakfast!”

“Oh, how romantic.”

“Yeah, if you want that kind of thing. No one asked him to do that.”

Aaron smiles at that. He loves his friend including her aromantism. She didn’t come out in that many words, but that’s what he got from their talk. And it only helped with their arrangement.

“You seriously need to work on your no-strings-attached speech before the sex.”

“Well, sorry for being out of practice. I didn’t exactly need anyone new for sex for a while.”

“Keep that up and I’ll start thinking that I’m some kind of sex god.”

She just smiles at him and pats his cheek. That’s the moment his phone buzzes with a new text. He doesn’t even think about it before pulling it out and opening the text.

“Gosh, you’re pathetic,” murmurs Jess when she sees his smile. “But you know what? Pathetic looks good on you.”

“Thanks, Jess. That’s exactly what I need to hear right now. Coffee?”

With that both of them go back to listening to the professor. They might have lost half of the lecture already, but they can get at least something out of the morning lesson.

***

Aaron doesn’t really have time to spend it with his sister. He checks with her a few times via text to make sure she’s okay after the attempted rape, but otherwise than that he just doesn’t have the time. He’s graduating and trying to get to Harvard law. So really, all he does these days is study, sleep and eat.

And text Michael. Maybe. All the time. When Michael isn’t teaching at the moment (he’s surprisingly professional at these moments) or one of them isn’t asleep it’s almost constant.

Aaron isn’t sure how it happened. At first it was to say thank you, then it was a few comments now and again about their day. Now it’s almost constant, few comments about their friends, classmates or pupils, family and even arguing about movies, music or TV shows. And Aaron is actually enjoying himself most of the time.

He has to visit his mother and her new husband. That weekend isn’t as bad as he was expecting, but it isn’t that good either. He spends it mostly locked in his own room and whining to Michael about it all.

_Not only is he an asshole, but of course he’s a homophobe, too!_

_And your mother doesn’t say anything to him?_

_I think she mostly agrees. She needs political correctness for her job, so she just doesn’t say so out loud_

They spend a few minutes talking about her job as a lawyer for the big companies in the city, but soon Michael comes back to what obviously interests him more.

_So you’re not out to your mother?_

_I never had a problem with introducing her to my girlfriends, but I was never with a boyfriend long enough to actually introduce him to my family_

He sends it before thinking about it.

_Okay, that’s not true. It was just never serious enough to come out to my mother_

_So your sister met your boyfriends?_

_One, ages ago. She hated him, dad wasn’t really pleased with him. Turns out they were right, he was a cheating scumbag_

_Sorry to hear that_

_It’s okay. Was long time ago_

When Michael doesn’t answer for a while, Aaron bites his lip and plays with his phone. They skirted about his bisexuality in the past, but not that explicitly. And he had problems with that previously with relationships that were far more… well, relationship-like than this. With girls and boys alike. It sucked but he refuses to hide himself from his partners.

_So you came out to your dad as…?_

He takes a deep breath before answering.

_Bisexual. And I didn’t really come out, it was more like an awkward conversation after he came home when he was supposed to be on a business trip_

_OMG what were you doing?_

_I still had my underwear on?_

_Did he?_

_No. But to dad’s credit he doesn’t treat me differently just because I like to kneel for a guy_

When Michael doesn’t answer for a while, Aaron lies on his bed and stares at the stars on his ceiling. They are old and hardly shine during the night anymore, but it is the last thing dad did in this house and Aaron doesn’t want to take them down.

Did he take it too far? Michael didn’t seem too bothered by his bisexuality, but…

_Did my sexuality scare you off?_

_Are you kidding? I’m trying to push the image of you kneeling out of my head_

Aaron cringes at that. He shouldn’t have said it. Michael seems like a proper… well, if not gentleman than probably someone who wasn’t so crude.

_You look hot on your knees_

That brings back smile on Aaron’s face.

_I’ll even shave for you_

_I told you I kinda like your beard_

_I wasn’t talking about my beard_

And God, they’re sexting, aren’t they?

It takes only a few more texts and a selfie of Michael, obviously right after shower in his bed, for Aaron to be very, very interested in that.

***

Next weekend is time to go home. This time not for fun, but to make sure he’s ready for his Harvard (and Yale, because you don’t bet all on one card) entrance exam. So he spends most of Saturday with dad going through his old cases. It’s interesting, but also demanding and tiring.

Blaire orders lunch for them and Mel makes them a great dinner but other than that all he has all day are three coffees and endless stream of juice. At least it is the good kind.

It’s seven o’clock when the doorbell rings. Dad raises an eyebrow at him.

“Expecting someone?”

“Here? No chance.”

“You know you can take anyone back here, right?”

“Yes, dad, I know. It’s mostly better without the worrying parent. At least for a first date.”

It looks like dad wants to say something more, but then there’s Blaire’s voice yelling at them from the second floor.

“Daddy? Open the door!”

“It’s your date, why don’t you open it?”

“I can’t! He has to wait for me.”

“Then he can wait outside.”

“Daddy! I need to make my entrance.”

Dad rolls his eyes at that, but Aaron just gets up and opens the door. The guy in front of it is skinny, pale, with dark, short hair and even darker eyes. He’s still a little round in the face, has a little too big nose and too thin lips, but he is kind of pretty. Not that it’s Aaron’s place to say so. This is his sister’s date. However, when the boy (because that’s all he is) looks up at Aaron (he notices his eyes linger on… well, everything of his), he smiles brightly.

“Hello there.”

“Hi,” he answers, amused. “You’re here for Blaire?”

“Oh, right. We’re going… out.”

“So I’ve heard. Come on in, then.”

He does and Aaron tries to ignore how his eyes linger. Maybe he’s just entertaining himself till Blaire arrives.

“I’m Tyler. You are?”

“Your date’s brother,” he answers smoothly, sitting down next to his dad. His dad, who is not looking that happy right now. The kid notices and straightens in his sneakers.

“Mister Fitz. I’m Tyler.”

“Drink?”

“No, thank you.”

“I’m not asking you if you want a drink. What, you think I’d give my teenage daughter’s driver a drink? I’m asking you if you drink.”

“No, sir.”

Aaron is highly amused by the way the kid is suddenly watching their dad with more attention than before. He’s harmless as long as you’re innocent. But it’s truth that Blaire wasn’t dating till now. And even few girlfriends and that one boyfriend of Aaron got a stink eye for their troubles.

“Tyler?”

It’s time for Blaire’s great entrance and she does it perfectly. Through the big stairs right in the middle of hall, so that Tyler, standing in front of the door to dad’s office, has perfect view. Aaron can’t see much of it, but Tyler nods approvingly.

“You look gorgeous, angel.”

“Thank you.”

Aaron rolls his eyes at Blaire’s sweet smile he can hear in the answer.

“Blaire?” asks their father and puts down his reading glasses. That’s rarely a good sign, but Aaron seriously doesn’t know what she did this time.

“Yes, daddy?”

She’s wearing a loose, short dress. The upper part of it, on the shoulders and right around neck, is black, but then there’s the circle cut that reveals just the right part of her chest and the color is cut to lilac. The whole of it ends slightly below her bottom, where there are some strings in the same lilac color hanging for about an inch more. Her heels are maybe two inches long, but they’re thin heels and the shoes only have two straps at the tip of her feet and one strap around the ankle. They’re black, but that’s only to match them to her small bag. Plus, thanks to that the lilac nail polish on the toes gets to shine. The small bag is all black with a flower pattern made of tiny white stones. Aaron’s sure they’re called something, but… whatever.

“What is that?”

“A dress.”

“Says who?”

“Calvin Klein.”

Aaron tries to hide his laughter in a pretend cough fit, but he probably doesn’t succeed.

“And when are you coming home?”

“Till midnight. Don’t worry, daddy. It’s just a party in the city. Aaron knows where it is, he knows the ones throwing it, right?”

Blaire gives him her best puppy eyes while dad gives him one long, searching stare. And really, saying he knows them is exaggerating, but…

“I have French class with the guy,” he shrugs, leaving out his drunken one-night stand with him. Thinking about it, the guy owes him one, so he figures it can work.

“Good. But I hope that is not the only thing you’re wearing.”

“Don’t worry, daddy.”

She hands her bag to Tyler, who was silently watching the conversation, and goes to the closet. She pulls out a short, black jacket and pulls it on, before waving in their direction and dragging Tyler out of the house.

“Nice to meet you, Aaron. Mister Fitz.”

Aaron snorts and checks his phone.

Michael went to see his parents for the weekend, so he answers sporadically. But he answers, which never fails to bring a smile to Aaron’s face. Like right at that moment.

“So, when do I get to meet your… friend?”

Dad doesn’t like the word partner. Once he knows the gender of his partner he doesn’t have a problem with it, but he still struggles to come up with something gender neutral.

“He’s not really… well, I think he is a friend now, but not really… more.”

Sure, they text daily, they sext now and again (twice so far, but hey, it’s been only a week since the first one!), but they’re not like that.

Dad raises an eyebrow at him.

“You sure? I haven’t seen you light up like that since the last Star Wars movie premiered.”

Aaron scoffs a little. He might not be a nerd, but Star Wars was his childhood, okay? And it was his dad’s fault anyway.

“It’s nothing. Really,” he assures his dad quickly. His dad still looks skeptical. “Dad, just… let it be, okay?”

“Fine. I’d just like to meet the new person in your life, son, that’s all.”

“He’s not really in my life. It’s…,” he could tell his dad about the fact that he’s been texting his sister’s teacher like a love sick fool, but… he’s not sure dad would approve. And the truth is he likes his approval, he wants it. Certainly more than mum’s. “It’s complicated.”

“You want to go out and meet with him?”

Since he’s in Santa Cruz for the weekend…

“No. But I can go on, spy on Blaire for you and make sure she stays out of trouble,” he smiles at him brightly. Dad sighs.

“That would help my conscience, thank you.”

“Any time, dad.”

“And son?”

“Yeah?”

“Anyone who can summon that smile with a simple text is a potential marriage material.”

“Dad!”

“It’s legal whoever they’re gonna end up being.”

“Thanks, dad. Not helping.”

***

When he arrives at the party, it looks like almost everyone has a good time.

First he checks on Blaire, because that’s a natural thing to do by now. She’s dancing with Tyler, which is good. Maybe he really was just entertaining himself while waiting for Blaire. Or swinging both ways, which, yeah, Aaron is the last person to judge for that.

He looks around and sees more of Blaire’s classmates. There’s Victoria, for once, but she’s too absorbed in her dance to really notice him. He doesn’t know which one of the familiar faces is Justin and to be honest, he’s glad for it. But then there’s a face he actually recognizes.

Layla’s staying a little bit to the side, she looks nervously around and doesn’t really do anything. She’s wearing a jean’s overall, a bright pink strap around her chest (is it a bra? Is it a crop top? Aaron has no idea) and a light blue sweatshirt is tied around her waist. Her hair is curly, falling around her face and ending on her shoulders. She looks out of place, but she’s cute doing it.

“Hey. Layla, right?” he smiles at her, when she jumps a little when he talks to her. “I’m Blaire’s brother, we met the other day.”

“Oh! Aaron, right?”

“That’s me,” he smiles encouragingly. “You know, I really like that song.” He’s bullshitting, he’s never heard that song before.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s a great one for dancing.”

It takes a while and a few doofy moves for him to make her laugh before she joins him.

He enjoys dancing. Sure, the dirty kind, where you mostly just rub against your partner, is nice, more than nice in some cases. But dancing itself is really great and he loves when he can just relax with some friends and not overthink his every move.

When he next looks around for Blaire, she practically dances alone while Tyler is dancing with the guy next to them. Well, there goes his theory about him swinging both ways. Considering the hot girls all around him, the guy he dances with isn’t even that hot. He should go over there, but… that’s Tyler’s secret to tell.

They dance for a little while before Blaire and Tyler join them.

“Aaron! I thought you were staying home with dad.”

“Yeah, well, turns out you can’t only study, you also need to live. Plus, your lovely friend could use the company,” he winks at Layla, who giggles. “But, I really need something to drink. You want something?”

“Beer.” He gives her one look. “Come on, it’s a weekend.”

“And you’re hardly sixteen. Your choice is coke, Fanta, Sprite and a ginger tonic.”

“I hate you.”

“So coke it is, then.”

“No, you ass! I want the tonic.”

“And you, Layla?”

“Sprite’s fine, thanks.”

“I’ll help,” smiled Tyler at him. Aaron just looks at him for a while before turning around and going straight to the bar. “You could at least smile.”

“I smile plenty. Now more than ever according to everyone I talk to.” He murmurs the last part, not really wanting Tyler to hear that. He pulls out his phone and checks it for a new text. He doesn’t really expect any, so he’s not really disappointed when there’s only one new text and that’s from Jess.

“Waiting for a text from someone?”

He’s ready to answer negatively (out of habit, not sincerity), when he realizes that the boy is smiling at him cockily and his body language is inviting him in.

“Yeah, actually, I am. And you are on a date with Blaire. You realize that, right?”

“Date? No,” Tyler laughs out loud. “I’m just new and she offered to show me around.”

Aaron raises his eyebrows.

“You sure about that? Because she was pretty excited about the date with a cute guy this Saturday.”

“You think I’m cute?”

“So not the point. And Blaire’s my sister. She thinks she’s here on a date with you.”

Tyler cringes before showing a hand through his hair.

“I didn’t realize that’s what she was thinking.”

“Yeah, maybe next time when you want to take a girl out, make sure she knows it’s not on a date,” snorts Aaron.

“Has to happen to you all the time, right?”

Now Tyler’s obviously checking him out. Aaron rolls his eyes.

“Not really. And when it happens, I usually mean it,” he winks at him before saying hi to Harry behind the bar and placing his coke, tonic and Sprite order. He is the only one with a driving license after all. “But fyi – that bartender? Definitely into guys.”

“Really?” Tyler looks skeptical when he looks him over. Aaron just snorts. He had his dick sucked by that guy, he knows.

“Really. I’ll take the girls home later tonight, but you really need to talk to Blaire.”

“You won’t do it for me?”

“I don’t out people, kid.”

With that he shrugs, takes his three bottles and winks at Harry, before turning around and going to the direction he last saw the girls.

Tyler joins them after a few minutes and they go back to dancing, this time doing it like a group. Aaron doesn’t miss the looks between Tyler and Harry every time they go for a drink, but the girls obviously do. It amuses Aaron, but he really hopes Tyler will talk to Blaire asap.

***

When he gets to the dorms, Sabih is sleeping on his anatomy textbook. He rolls his eyes and walks right out of the dorm.

_Any idea where they can have a sale on energy drinks?_

_You need to sleep like any other human, Aaron_

_It’s not for me. My best friend fell asleep on his textbook_

_He needs sleep, too_

_He has a test tomorrow, he can sleep after that_

_You know, sometimes I miss college. You remind me why that is not a good idea. Try Walmart, they usually have some kind of it on sale_

_Thanks, you’re my savior_

_Get some sleep tonight, Aaron. I’ll talk to you tomorrow_

_Good night_

_Night_

He sighs, but puts his phone to his pocket and goes to the nearest Walmart. He needs some food, too, anyway.

When he gets back Sabih is drooling on his textbook. He rolls his eyes and takes the textbook away. Michael is right about one thing – he needs his sleep. And a few hours nap won’t kill him. He can wake him up after he makes dinner. He’s sure Sabih hasn’t eaten in hours, if not days.

After the dinner, which he shares with grumpy Sabih, he checks his phone. He knows Michael won’t text him until next morning, but it’s a habit by now.

“Waiting for your loverboy?”

“He’s not my… anything,” grumbles Aaron. Sabih rolls his eyes.

“Well, you’re certainly his.”

“Shut up.”

“Please. I haven’t seen you leave your mobile anywhere more than a foot away from you in weeks.”

“Once more – shut up.”

“Have you at least kissed?”

“We don’t meet, Sabih. We just… text.”

“And sext?” Sabih wiggles his eyebrows, Aaron rolls his eyes.

“Yes, if you need to know, we sext.”

“So you admit he’s your boyfriend.”

“I told you, he’s not my anything. And would you stop? I thought you need to study.”

“I’ve studied for three days straight and thanks to the energy drink I will study the whole night. Thanks for that, by the way.” Aaron waves him away. “Seriously, Aaron. I’ve never seen you like that about any guy. Not when you already know things about him,” he adds quickly before Aaron can open his mouth. “So no, Tyler doesn’t count.”

Tyler was the asshole homophobic fratboy he was crushing on from Thanksgiving to Christmas last year.

“Okay, fine. But aren’t you forgetting something? He’s Blaire’s teacher.”

“So what? You’re both adults and you’re not even her legal guardian, you have no right to get information about her! Plus, you’re only her half-brother, so it’s not even that weird.”

“It is weird! Every time he doesn’t answer my texts from nine to ten I know he’s teaching Blaire and it’s weird.”

“Doesn’t answer?”

“He has a thing about using a phone during class. It’s okay, he doesn’t mind when he’s in his office or during lunch.”

Sabih just looks at him for a while, unbelieving.

“You know his daily schedule and you still think there’s nothing going on?”

“I never said nothing’s going on,” shrugs Aaron. Sabih just sighs.

“Why don’t you talk to him about it? And I mean face to face.”

“That’s… It’s not that simple.”

“You’re making it complicated.”

“Sabih, just… don’t.”

Sabih just watches him get ready for a shower in silence. Aaron’s grateful that he doesn’t say anything and then stays in the shower for longer than necessary. Sabih’s right.

He’d like to get to meet Michael face to face. Not only is he gorgeous, but he’s also intelligent, sarcastic in the best moments and now and again he’s even worried about Aaron (like when he doesn’t sleep enough). He likes that, he wants that even out of text messages.

When he gets out of the shower and into the room, Sabih is already studying. He doesn’t want to disturb him, so he tries to be quiet.

“I just like how he makes you smile, that’s all.”

“Would you all stop repeating that?”

Sabih turns around and looks at him.

“We all?”

“You, Jess, Dad… yes, you all.”

“Well, maybe we all are right. And you should stop denying it.”

Aaron sighs and nods.

“Maybe you’re right. Now I just need to find an excuse to see him.”

“Maybe Blaire can help?”

“Oh, no, I’m not asking my little sister to help me with my love life.”

“Whatever you say, loverboy.”

“Shut up.”

***

Aaron doesn’t have to think hard and long about an excuse to see Michael. As it turns out, he doesn’t need any excuse.

“Hey, lil’ sis!” he answers his phone with a smile and a finger to a student standing few steps away from him in the library. But he does take the book he needs and heads out, stopping at the desk to check the book out.

“I hate when you call me that.” She’s pouting and Aaron can hear it in her voice. He smiles at that.

“That’s why I call you that,” he sings-songs. “Thanks,” he murmurs to the girl behind the counter and gives her a wink. Flirting gets him out of a lot of trouble. “You had your driver’s test today, right? How did that go?”

“Yeah, great,” now Blaire sounds pissed. “That man was totally out of his mind! He said I can’t drive and I shouldn’t be even allowed behind the wheel anymore.”

“Well, Blaire… he’s kinda right. Remember that sound my baby did when you were behind the wheel?”

“That’s your car’s fault, I’m not used to it! But I’m perfectly good with my Jeep.”

“Whatever, lil’ sis. But I am glad you’re not free to roam the streets as you please.”

“Aaron,” she whines into the phone. Aaron rolls his eyes.

“You’re awesome in many things, Blaire, but driving is not one of them. And isn’t Vic taking her test some time next week? You can ride with her then.”

“Yeah, but what can I do until then?”

“You can ride the bus?”

“Aaron! That’s not funny.”

“Whatever, Blaire. Look, why don’t I pick you up tomorrow after school? I can’t do it every day for you, but we can go for an ice cream tomorrow? To make up for your failed driver’s test.”

“That’s the first clever idea you’ve had all day.”

“Just so you know, I’ve just finished my second essay of today, so I’d hope I’ve had more than one good idea today.”

“Nerd.”

“Loser.”

“Weirdo.”

“Okay, princess, we can do this all day, but I actually have a book to read and don’t have much time for it. When should I pick you up?”

“Three should be okay. I’ll see you at the campus!”

Before Aaron can answer, she hangs up. He frowns a little, but lets it go.

He thought Blaire’s school ends at four. But maybe her last class got canceled or something. He’ll just be there at three and see.

***

His morning is long and tiring, with an 8AM class, Jess teasing him about Michael and a test on the book he read during the night. He takes a nap through lunch, then Sabih wakes him up with a lunch. He’s not that good cook, so all they have is pasta with ketchup, but hey, it’s meal and he has a lot of it. He’s hungry, the only thing he got for breakfast was coffee, okay?

“I always fall for the ‘after midterms we’re free until finals’ crap,” sighs Sabih when he looks at the new books he got from the library.

“We’re fools,” grins Aaron at him, before checking his phone.

“Some of us bigger than others,” grins Sibah at him. Aaron rolls his eyes, but before he can open his mouth Sabih continues. “I know, I know, shutting up now. Aren’t you supposed to pick up your sister in about an hour?”

“Shit, you’re right.”

He looks down at himself and decides the jeans are good enough to wear for the afternoon, but his shirt is all wrinkled and he had it on for like… three days already. Blaire would kill him if she saw him in it, so he throws on his Dodgers t-shirt before going out.

“Have fun!”

“It’s only an ice cream with Blaire.”

“Whatever.”

This time he doesn’t really hurry like the last time he was headed to Harvard-Westlike. There’s no emergency now and if Blaire needs to wait for him a while, she can deal.

But when he gets there, nobody’s here. He frowns and digs out his phone. He smiles at Michael’s text and quickly replies before going to texts with Blaire.

_Where R U?_

_In class, obvi?_

_I’m outside! U told me to be here at 3!_

_No, I didn’t_

_Yes, you did_

_Well, Santorski’s free_

Aaron groans out loud and punches the wheel. Damn his meddling sister!

But really, does he have a choice?

_I h8 U_

He sends this last text to his sister before going back to his conversation with Michael.

_I’m in front of the campus. You doing something?_

Okay, so he’s trying to sound less teenage-like in front of him, sue him.

_I was, but it wasn’t anything important. Come to my office?_

_On my way_

He doesn’t think about it. He consciously doesn’t think about it while swiftly walking through the empty halls to Michael’s office. He doesn’t knock. Michael knows about him, so what’s the point, right?

He’s excited to see him face to face, he can admit that to himself. Not that the selfies aren’t good (Aaron is certainly not complaining), but meeting someone in person is different.

“So I see your manners aren’t any better than the last time we saw each other.” Michael is sitting behind his desk, wearing that slightly cocky grin of his. He had it on one of his selfies, the one that’s Aaron’s favorite.

“You’ve never before complained about my lack of manners,” he winks at him before shutting the door. In retrospect, that would be better to do first. Michael’s smile gets brighter, before he straightens in his chair.

“You here for Blaire?”

“Yeah. Well, no, not like that,” he adds quickly when Michael’s face darkens. “I’m here just to pick Blaire up so we can go get ice cream so she doesn’t think about her failed driver’s exam. I told you, I’m not doing this anymore, I’m not getting into the schemantics of your teaching, especially you teaching Blaire. In fact, I kinda like your methods.”

“Really?” As he spoke Michael stopped being so tense and now he’s smiling again. “You like my methods?”

“Well, you see your students as people and try to confront them individually. And you refuse to text with me when you’re with them, giving them your full attention. I admire that.”

“That’s… good to hear. Really,” he adds when Aaron just snorts. “You don’t really get any recognition in this kind of job, so… it’s nice to hear it.”

“Yeah, teenagers aren’t exactly appreciative of good teachers, are they?” smirks Aaron, amused.

“Were you?”

“No, but if we had young, sexy teacher, I’m sure I would be,” he winks at Michael and watches his pupil dilate. He licks his lips and smiles shyly and Michael gulps.

Then he pulls himself together. They’re in school, Michael works here and the building is still full of annoying teenagers. This is not the place or the time.

“So… you need to grade all these papers?”

“Oh, right.” Michael snorts lightly. “Yes, those and other three piles just like that one at home. Job of a teacher – it never ends.”

“Good to know,” he smiles at Michael brightly. “Not that I was considering a teaching career, but Blaire’s still undecided, so… I’ll tell her. No teaching.”

“Please do,” nods Michael with a sigh. “I’d feel sorry for the poor souls she would be teaching.”

“You and me too, pal, you and me too.”

Who the hell says pal anymore? God, Aaron’s nervous. He hates this about his crushes – it’s the only time he actually feels nervous. His first instinct was bro, but that just didn’t feel right. But seriously, pal?

“So… what are the papers about?”

“Same old stuff. American revolution from freshmen, the civil war from sophomores and the second world war from the seniors.”

“What’s up with juniors?”

“First world war. But their essay isn’t due till next week.”

Aaron laughs at that and Michael winks at him. They look at each other, before someone slaps some doors closed and the moment is gone.

“Um, so… you use all these books in your classes?”

“Not really. Sometimes I bring them with me, to show pupils where they can find material or some extra reading, if they’re interested. Was hoping they’d maybe come over and borrow some books.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“Very funny, Aaron.”

“It is from where I’m standing. So, you bought all of these?”

They talk about the books he has in the bookcase, then Michael pulls out some of them to show him some art or just some parts he finds interesting. Then they talk about the part of history they find interesting, which is actually a really great discussion that both of them really enjoy.

And then Aaron realizes how close they are to each other and looks up. Michael’s looking at him with a smile on his face. They’re almost the same size, Aaron’s only about an inch smaller, so they’re looking each other in the eyes.

“Was thinking you’d be more into gladiators. Or the old gold west.”

“Twenties were the time of jazz, a great fashion and the best mafians in our cities. And did you know that in the thirties there was a great gay community in Berlin?”

“You know I’m a history teacher, right?” smirks Michael at him.

“Well, I’m sure my history teacher didn’t know. But that might be because she’s an old, homophobic… witch,” he ends with a smile. Michael laughs.

“Well, I’m neither homophobic nor a witch.”

“And you’re certainly not old,” he comments with a smile before biting his lower lip. Michael is still looking at him with an intense look in his eyes and a book in one of his hands.

And Aaron decides in that moment – fuck it. The moment or place might not be right, but he wants this and Michael is obviously interested, too. So he makes the step closer and slightly pursues his lips.

“Okay,” says Michael suddenly and turns to return the book to the bookcase. “I don’t actually have one about the community in Berlin in the thirties, but…”

“For God’s sake, would you just kiss me already?”

Michael stops at that before slowly turning back to Aaron.

“I don’t make the first step with people I have a power over.”

“Well, you don’t have power over me.”

“Really?” Michael smiles and looks him over. Aaron rolls his eyes.

“Okay, fine. But you have no legal power over me. So could you just…”

Michael takes the step and Aaron is so ready for this.

“Why don’t you take the first step, then?”

“Because I like dominant men. And something tells me you prefer that role,” he smiles cockily at him.

“Smartass.” Michael makes another step closer and now they’re practically chest to chest.

“History nerd.”

“Pretty boy.”

“Just kiss me already.”

And he does. And it’s… fuck, it’s everything Aaron has ever wanted. It’s passionate, but slow, full of longing and… well, not really love, but definitely strong affection. Aaron feels Michael’s tongue slowly explore his mouth and he lets him before exploring himself. It’s not really a dirty kiss, but it still leaves Aaron sensitive and wanting more.

When they separate he realizes that he’s clenching Michael’s shirt in one hand and the other hand is around his neck. One of Michael’s hand is around his waist and the other one is in his hair. He smiles a little awkwardly and tries to straighten his shirt. Michael slides the hand from his hair to his neck and slips his thumb under his chin. He presses then, so Aaron looks up.

“Wow, you actually can blush.”

“Haven’t you heard? All ginger heads blush easily.”

“Yeah, but you’re so confident I haven’t dreamed of seeing that. It’s lovely.”

“Really? Cause everyone tells me red looks terrible on me. Clashes with my hair.”

“Don’t care.”

With that he kisses him again. This time Aaron is actually prepared for that, so he doesn’t swoon like an idiot.

But of course then comes knocking and Blaire bursting in.

“Hey, Aaron, sorry for… oh my God.”

And with that they both take a step back. Aaron feels the lost almost immediately, so he quickly takes a few steps to Blaire.

“Thanks, sis. You’re really helpful.”

“Sorry, bro.” And she actually looks guilty so he decides to let it slide. He turns to Michael.

“I’m sorry about this.”

“No. No, it’s okay. You have your ice cream to get to and I’ve got… essays.” He says the last word with a remorseful look to the piles on his desk.

“Yes, you do. But maybe some time later this week we can meet up for the coffee we actually never had?”

Aaron’s really nervous about asking. Because sexting and constant texting is one thing, but actual dating is something completely different. When Michael looks up, though, he smiles at him gently. With that little crinkles around his eyes. And fuck, Aaron is far too deep in, isn’t he?

“I’d love that. I’ll text you?”

“Counting on it.”

Once again they look at each other for a while in silence, until Blaire coughs and nudges him.

“Oh, right. I kinda… I need to go. But text me. Or call! I’ll talk to you about the date later. I mean the coffee.”

“Yes, the coffee date. I’ll call you.”

Michael looks amused and thanks God for that.

“Wow. Didn’t you say you’re smooth?”

“Seriously, Blaire? Shut up.”

“And I’ll let you know, he’s plenty smooth,” Michael winks at him and Aaron smiles.

“Thanks. But I should probably go before I embarrass myself even more.”

“Once again, I find that cute. I’ll see you later. Nice seeing you, miss Fitz.”

“I hope to see you more often, mister Santorski,” smiles Blaire brightly. Michael looks amused, but Aaron just groans.

“Okay, enough of your matchmaking. Sorry, Michael, we’ll be out of your hair in a minute.”

“It was my pleasure, I assure you.”

“And people say I’m a flirt.”

Michael winks at him, but then Aaron actually ushers Blaire out of the door. He expects a comment as soon as they’re out, but Blaire’s actually quiet the whole way back to the car.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” Aaron finally says when they both sit in his car.

“Hear what?” Blaire’s trying to sound innocent, but there’s a bright smile on her face.

“Whatever you have to say. And by the way I knew there was something fishy about you finishing school at three.”

“And yet you still came,” sings-songs his annoying little sister. He sighs.

“Sabih told you to do this.”

“I don’t need your friend’s advice on matchmaking, thank you very much. But… he did call to tell me you need a push.”

Aaron sighs out loud, but smiles lightly.

“You really need to stop doing that. But I guess I owe you and Sabih both a thank you, so… thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She’s silent, but something about it makes Aaron look at her. She’s smiling brightly and watching him intensely.

“What?”

“Nothing, just… I like seeing you that happy. You weren’t that excited about a date… well, ever. And I’ve never seen you that nervous.”

“I know, right? What’s wrong with me? I’ve never stuttered before in my life!”

Blaire laughs at that and even Aaron smiles.

It’s a good sign, right? Being nervous means he wants it to mean something. That’s good.

***

When Saturday comes, Aaron’s a mess.

He’s home, because he had enough of Sabih’s teasing during the week, and he’s trying to avoid dad. It’s not that hard, considering dad’s in his office and doesn’t realize this weekend isn’t like the last one. Or the one before that.

It’s not like he doesn’t want dad to know about Michael. It’s more that he wants to be sure himself what they are before saying anything to dad. The situation is bad enough without dad fussing about it.

“Hey, Mel,” he smiles lightly at the bright-eyed woman. She’s been managing dad’s house since he moved from mum’s house. Thanks to that she’s known him since he was six. Back then she was young and new in America. That changed, but Mel stayed the same woman with the no-nonsense attitude. “Have you seen my dark red shirt?” She just raises her eyebrows at him.

“Maybe it’s at the cleaner’s?”

“Maybe. Or at my mum’s or my dorm.” He sighs and runs his hand through his damp hair. “Sorry, I just figured I’d ask.”

“Don’t worry about it, pequeño señor (little sir). Hot date?”

“God, I hope so.”

Mel laughs lightly and Aaron smiles at her.

“I hope you’ll at least have a decent dinner if you stay over,” scolds him Mel with a frown. Somehow she still tries to feed him even though Aaron has to work hard on losing weight every time he stays here for a while.

“Hopefully,” he grins at her before quickly going out of her way.

He goes back to his room and with a sigh dives into the pile of clothes he created in his search for his shirt.

He stands in the middle of his room with dark green t-shirt with a V-neck in one hand and a Marvel civil war t-shirt in the other, when Blaire comes in. She gives him one hard look before scoffing.

“Suit pants and a superhero shirt? Really?”

“Shut up,” he grumbles, but lets go of the Marvel shirt and puts on the dark green one. He fidgets a bit before forcefully staying still. “So… what do you think?”

“What do you care what I think?” frowns Blaire, but looks him up and down. “The shirt seriously works for you. Turn around.” She waits for him to do so before adding: “So do the trousers, but… it just doesn’t fit well together.”

Aaron groans, frustrated, takes off the shirt and flings it back to the pile of clothes. Blaire’s confused.

“What are you doing? I remember only one time you wore a suit and it took ages for Natalie to talk you into it.”

“I’m not wearing a suit!” he points at her, then sighs. “I’m just trying to look… respectable. I mean – have you ever seen something else than nice trousers and a shirt on Michael?”

“Who?”

Aaron glares at her, but she really doesn’t know what he’s talking about. For a while. When it clicks, she gets a really big smile on her face.

“Aaron! Are you finally going on that coffee date with Santorski?!”

“That’s mister Santorski for you. And yes.” He breaths in uneasily. “Yes, I am.”

“Aww,” coos Blaire from the pile of clothes, where she’s looking for a shirt herself. “You’re nervous.”

“Of course I’m nervous. Have you seen me the last time we saw each other? I‘m all good when we text, but I turn into an idiot when we meet face to face.”

“Stop freaking out, big bro. He’s obviously taken with you. And come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To daddy’s. I’m sure he’ll have a shirt that will fit.

Aaron’s sure he would be annoyed in any other situation, but right now he’s grateful.

“See?” she smiles at him through a mirror they’re both standing in front of. He’s wearing his formal pants and dad’s white shirt. Its sleeves are rolled slightly above his elbow and Blaire made him tuck it into his trousers. Somehow, it works. “You have nothing to worry about. Well, maybe your so called beard. You really should shave.”

Aaron just grins widely.

***

When Aaron gets to the café Michael chose, his date’s already there.

“Wow.” Michael gets up when he sees him and looks him up and down. “You dressed up.”

“And you dressed down.” Michael’s wearing dark jeans and a light blue, soft t-shirt with captain’s shield. Aaron feels really stupid. Michael laughs and Aaron’s already ready to go right back home.

“Yeah, well, I’m not in work, so no need to be professional.”

“I… wanted to impress you,” confesses Aaron. Great, it’s hardly been a minute and he’s already embarrassed.

“In that case… well done.”

Aaron looks up. Michael’s watching him with a smile, his stare is intense, but not really making Aaron uncomfortable. He finally gains some confidence back and winks at him.

They’ve been standing the whole time, so they finally sit down. The silence after that is a little bit tense, but not really uncomfortable. It’s interrupted by the waiter, who comes with Michael’s order (mocha latté, Aaron’s sure Blaire would love that) and for Aaron’s order (cappuccino, no syrup, thanks).

“Don’t,” is the only thing Michael says.

“Didn’t say anything,” sing-songs Aaron, but he’s smirking and he knows it. “So… Steve’s side in civil war?”

“Of course!”

“No way.”

“What, would you want the government to have that much power over you?”

“Don’t they already?” snorts Aaron. “Besides – if there actually were people with superpowers, wouldn’t you want to have a way to stop them, if shit hit the fan?”

They fight about civil war for a while. In a moment both of them stop smiling and then it gets heated so much, that the waiter politely, but briskly informs them to turn it down or leave the café immediately. That calms them down.

“I’m not sorry,” Aaron shots at Michael after they both apologize to the waiter and Aaron thanks for his coffee.

“Neither am I,” grins Michael at him. “Your cheeks are all red now.”

Aaron feels how he flushes even more. Damn his pale skin of a ginger! He might not be all white thanks to him living in California, but he still flushes easily. Thank God for the lack of freckles.

“Fuck you. Are you even on Cap’s side?”

“’f course I am. But your arguments do make sense.”

After that, they talk, and this time, it’s actually pleasant.

Aaron has talked about Blaire before, so he knows Michael’s cool with it. But it eases something in him when he sees Michael’s face, sees for himself that it’s actually okay for him to talk about his little sister.

He’s not the only one who talks about his siblings. Michael has an older sister, Laurel, and a younger brother, Peter. Laurel is a partner in some book publishing company and Peter finished his degree in social work last year and since then has been home with his son while his wife went back to work – she owns a small coffee shop.

Aaron knew most of this before the date, but Michael shows him selfies of his sister she sends him late at night when she’s stuck in the office and pictures of baby Will Peter sends him almost daily. Going by Michael’s bright smile, he doesn’t mind the frequency of said photos.

They talk about their parents, Michael’s being supportive, if a little awkward at first, Aaron’s dad being practical and refusing the awkwardness of the situation and his mother still being ignorant about it. He’s a little nervous about Michael’s feelings about him still (partially) being in the closet. Luckily for him, Michael’s cool with it.

“I get it, Aaron. It’s not always save to come out to some people. And you’re still mostly out… aren’t you?”

They’re done with their coffees by then, so they pay and go for a scroll through the nearby park.

They talk about their friends. Michael looks glad that he’s out to both Jess and Sabih and not really keeping it a secret from the rest of the world, with the exception of his mother. Aaron understands that, asking about Michael’s friends. Most of them are scattered all around the States. Few, most of his high school friends, are still in Santa Cruz, but one of his high school friends and two from college are in LA. One of them never has time to meet him, because she’s in hospital working all the time, but he meets with the other two semi-regularly. With one of them every other week for hockey. Michael laughs when he sees Aaron’s face after telling him this. He doesn’t really care for hockey either, but he likes meeting with his friend and it’s fun watching him suffer.

They’re at the other end of the park, when Michael stops and slowly turns to face Aaron with a sly smile on his face.

“You know, I have a flat not far from here.”

“Yeah?” Aaron gives back as much as he gets where sly smiles are concerned. “To do… what, exactly?”

Michael’s smile turns predatory. He comes chest to chest with Aaron, sliding his arm around Aaron’s waist. He’s so close to him he can murmur into his ear.

“What about that thing I texted you Monday that made you late for your ancient Rome history class?”

Aaron shudders.

“I was waiting for a kiss for weeks, still am for the third one, by the way, but I’ll get sex on the first date?”

“I thought I’d offer, considering how you bitched about it for the rest of the day. But if you don’t want to…”

Michael tries to pull away, but Aaron grabs his shirt and tugs him back, closer than before.

“Will I always have to fight for a kiss?”

“I don’t know. Do you like it as much as I do?”

“You’re so full of shit.”

“You seem to like that.”

Aaron rolls his eyes, tugs Michael even closer and kisses him. It’s hard and demanding and even though it was Aaron initiating the kiss, Michael quickly takes charge of it. Aaron’s not really complaining, especially when Michael gets his hands back on him. One of them is in his hair, griping it and tugging lightly, and the other one starts at his waist, but also starts sliding lower the moment it gets there. Aaron has one of his hands still tugged in Michael’s shirt and the other one on his shoulder. He can feel himself getting hard quickly and when Michael’s hand finally gets to his ass and squeezes, he moans into his lips. Michael smiles and kisses him once more before giving them just enough space to talk. They’re still standing so close to each other they can’t look into each other’s eyes without getting dizzy in the process.

“Can I take that as a yes?”

Aaron punches him lightly, but nods.

Michael takes his hand and walks quickly to his building. Aaron’s a little surprised about the hand holding (most guys he’s been with were almost allergic to that), so he’s a step behind him, but he goes just as eagerly. When they finally arrive Michael already has his keys out. They ignore the elevator and quickly walk the stairs to the third floor. When Michael unlocks his door there, Aaron’s a little bit nervous, but mostly excited. He hasn’t gotten laid since this whole disaster started and now he’s gonna get laid by the reason behind it. The nervousness mostly comes from him being afraid this whole thing is gonna be over much quicker than he’d wish.

The moment they’re behind closed doors Michael shoves him against them, not really gently. Michael’s at him the very next second, his kisses almost biting, while his hands are working on untugging Aaron’s shirt from his trousers.

“You should wear those things more often,” he breaths heavily against his lips, before moving with his kisses to his neck. “The shoulders on you. And God, this ass.” As he says it, he tugs his hips against Aaron’s while squeezing his ass once more, harder than in the park. Aaron moans loudly with his head thrown back and eyes shut. “’ve been fantasizing about it since the first time you came to my office and that was when you were wearing jeans. You had to pull this shit, didn’t you?”  
Aaron giggles and seriously – what the fuck?

“Glad you like it. But can we take it off now? You’re seriously wearing too many clothes right now.”

Michael snorts, but pulls away to get rid of his shirt.

Aaron starts to get rid of his own shirt, but then gets stuck looking at Michael’s chest. He’s not really muscle-y, but he’s lean with a slim waist and just a touch of chest hair.

And fuck, he hasn’t stopped like that in the middle of getting naked since he was eighteen. Michael just smirks, though.

“Looks like I’m not the only one who likes what he sees.”

“Shut up.”

He finally gets rid of his shirt and leaves it right here.

“You have a bedroom?”

“What, you don’t want the tour first?”

“Unless you want to fuck me on your kitchen table, then no, thanks.”

Michael’s eyes go dark and once more Aaron finds himself pushed to the door. Michael does bite his bottom lip this time while kissing him and Aaron wraps one of his legs around his waist.

“Maybe for second round. Now I really want to eat you out.”

“Fuck, Michael!”

Michael’s flat is small, so it takes almost no time for them to get to his bedroom. There’s only a big bed and a closet in the room, but bed is all Aaron needs at the moment.  
Michael pushes him on the bed, but instead of joining him starts to take his trousers off. Aaron quickly gets the idea and sheds his own trousers and socks, but then Michael’s back on him, between his legs, almost laying on his chest while kissing him hard and fast. Aaron arches into him before flipping them, so he’s straddling Michael’s hips.

“How is a history teacher so fit?”

“I jog,” smirks Michael. “Don’t you?”

“Hate it,” answers Aaron absentmindedly while kissing his neck. “Fuck, you smell good.”

Michael laughs before flipping them over once more. Instead of pressing Aaron into the mattress, he pulls away slightly and takes Aaron’s underwear with him. Aaron stretches on the soft sheets, letting Michael watch for a while, but then he looks at him, annoyed.

“You gonna just sit there and watch? All night?”

“It is a nice sight, so it would definitely be worth it,” Michael winks at him, “but not tonight. Maybe some other night.”

Before Aaron has time to ponder about that, Michael’s back on him, between his opened legs. He moans into the fast kiss and yanks his ankle across Michael’s lower leg.  
Michael doesn’t stay there long, though. He moves to the neck next, licking and sucking for a while, biting his earlobe once and Aaron swears there’s gonna be a hickey tomorrow morning. He’s moaning and scratching Michael’s back before long, now fully aroused.

Michael then moves to his chest, paying extra attention to his nipples. Aaron’s hands slip to Michael’s hair. He’s enjoying himself just fine, but is already waiting for Michael to go further down. And Michael notices, hums around one of his nipples and bites lightly. Aaron grimaces. That’s not sexy.

“Not sensitive here, huh?” murmurs Michael, licking just under said nipple. Aaron just grunts, his hands slide down to a sheet under him and he clenches them there. “Shame. You have great nipples. Could see them through your shirt the first time I saw you.”

“Is there anything that isn’t great on me?” Aaron’s highly amused. Michael looks up to him, smiling.

“Haven’t found it yet.”

As he says that his hand slightly brushes across Aaron’s tummy. Aaron shudders and Michael straightens at it. He does it again and Aaron has to close his eyes under the pleasure. Michael goes lower and starts kissing every inch of Aaron’s stomach, sucking and licking now and again. Aaron’s a shaking mess in only a few moments.

“Oh, fuck! Michael, come on.”

“So you do have erogenous zones,” smirks Michael at him. “And you react so sweetly to touch here…”

“Fuck you.” He’s arching into Michael’s touch and moaning loudly.

Michael takes pity on him and moves lower. Aaron’s relief only lasts a minute. Michael completely ignores his hard dick and goes for his thighs. Aaron could cry, if it didn’t feel so fucking good. He bends his knees, so Michael can reach his inner thighs better. And he does – he grabs one of them and squeezes and Aaron swears he’s ready to burst in that moment. But fuck, Michael’s so good with his mouth. And his hands. And fuck, he’s never thought his legs will be such a turn on, but here he is.

“Michael, come on!” He’s whining and he’s not even embarrassed about it. That much.

“Fine,” Michael sighs, but he smirks so Aaron figures he’s not that annoyed. “Turn over.”

Aaron really doesn’t have any problem with that. But then Michael comes back to his shoulders and he groans out loud, frustrated. Michael laughs against his skin.

“I told you I like your shoulders.”

“I’m pretty sure you’d like my dick if you just touched it.”

Michael snorts and slaps his ass. Aaron grunts once more and shifts a little, before closing his eyes. Michael’s hands across his back and kisses on his shoulders are actually pretty nice and he’s sure he’d enjoy them endlessly if he wasn’t just so fucking hard right now. So when Michael slides his hands to his ass, he’s so ready he moans out loud. Michael smiles against his skin and licks his way down, right over his spine. Aaron arches into the touch.

If he thought he’s ready to burst before, it’s nothing compared to when Michael finally gets to his ass. He knows he likes to bottom and he remembers once or twice that he was rimmed. But this? This is nothing like he remembers. Michael’s obviously enjoying himself, just licking around before diving in, humming a little, sending vibrations right into Aaron. He moans and slides his knees under himself, so that Michael has a better access.

“Michael, please,” he moans, his voice cracking on the second word. Michael just smiles, but doesn’t stop what he’s doing. But he does touch Aaron’s cock, finally. It doesn’t take long after that, Aaron’s already a wiggling mess. So it takes only a few tugs for him to come.

He relaxes into the sheets. He knows he’s lying in the pile of his own come, but he really, really doesn’t care right now. His brain is a mushy substance right now and he feels warm and safe and god, he hopes this is not just a one time sex thing.

He’s suddenly covered by a hard, hot body. He can feel Michael’s bulge pressing into his ass and he moans, broken. He can feel his dick twitch in interest, but even he can’t get hard again this soon after his orgasm.

“I really want to fuck you,” murmurs Michael into his ear. Aaron whimpers and presses his ass into Michael’s still clothed crotch. “Would that be okay?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he whines into the pillow and shudders when Michael runs his fingers across his side. “Just… give me a minute.”

“That’s fine. I need to prep you anyway.”

“Oh, no, don’t you…fuck, Michael!”

How did he get a lube anyway? Had to be in the time Aaron almost passed out. But the truth is, it already feels better than he expected. He’s not really oversensitive anymore and he’s already loose from Michael’s mouth and… yes, this feels great. He sighs and bends one of his knees, so Michael has a better access.

“You love this don’t you?”

“Shut up. You don’t really seem to mind.”

“I don’t,” snorted Michael, adding another finger. “I love it. Didn’t pick you for such a nice bottom. Thought there would be a fight and I might have to bottom.”

“Do you?” Aaron frowns, before biting his lip. Do they really have to have this conversation when he has two of Michael’s fingers in his ass? “Bottom, I mean.”

“Not really.” Michael kisses his shoulder, but Aaron can hear the discomfort in his voice. “I don’t really like it. I find it uncomfortable and not worth the fuss about. I do come, but… I prefer to top, if I can.”

“Good,” sighs Aaron lightly and turns his head so he can see Michael. “Cause I don’t know if you noticed, but I love this.”

“Yeah, no shit,” chuckles Michael. He watches him for a while before pulling away. “Turn around. Come on.”

Aaron’s not really happy about having to move, but he deals with it. And it’s well worth the kiss Michael gives him the moment he’s on his back. He arches into it, wrapping one of his legs around Michael’s hips and pressing him closer to himself. His hands find their way to Michael’s hair and fuck, he’s fully hard once again.

“Fuck, come on. Fuck me now, kissing later.”

“Please. We can do both.” Michael smiles at him brightly, kissing him once more and slipping his two fingers back into him, soon adding another one. Aaron moans into his mouth and Michael smiles against his lips. It’s not really kissing anymore, more like nibbling and breathing each other’s breath, but Aaron loves the intimacy of it.  
“Okay.” Michael sounds breathy, his chest is moving rapidly and his eyes are glossy. Aaron moans at the sight. “You ready? Cause I seriously can’t wait any longer.”

“You’ve got a condom?”

Michael doesn’t answer, just reaches to a side table and comes back with a condom. Aaron whines a little when he pulls his fingers away, but then Michael’s getting rid of his underwear and Aaron is so fucking excited. He hasn’t been with a guy for a while and while his thing with Jess was nice, this is entirely different.

“Ready?”

“Shut up and fuck me.”

Michael listens and slides right into him. Aaron arches into it and moans, loud and long. Michael’s hands are right next to his shoulders and he’s trying not to lie all his weight on Aaron, but Aaron just tugs him closer. He wants to feel Michael on himself, feel his every move, feel the strength in his body. And he does.

Michael groans quietly, before sliding his mouth on Aaron’s neck once more. He bites there and sucks and Aaron’s moaning aloud, not caring about anything but the feel of Michael inside of him. Michael’s not the biggest he’s ever had, but god, does he know what he’s doing. His thrusts are shallow, but precise and Aaron feels his legs shaking.

“For fuck’s… this is so good… so fucking good… oh yeah, right there…”

He’s babbling and he knows it, but he doesn’t care. And by the way Michael’s thrusts are getting harder, longer, he doesn’t mind either. He yanks one of Aaron’s legs to his shoulder and Aaron practically screams, when the next Michael’s thrust hits his prostate dead on.

“Michael, come on.”

He could cry, his eyes are closed and he’s scratching Michael’s back, when Michael stops sucking on his neck and moves to his ear.

“That’s it. Come for me, baby.”

“I can’t.” Aaron whines. “I need… my dick…”

Michael works one of his hands in between them and Aaron does scream when he finally touches him. It takes only a few strokes timed with Michael’s thrust and he’s gone once more.

This time, Michael doesn’t just stop, he fastens his thrust in his chase for his own orgasm. Aaron gasps and whines, he’s oversensitive and it kinda hurts, but god, is he loving this. It doesn’t last long, though. Michael’s coming in a few more thrusts.

Aaron winces when Michael slips out of him. He sees peripherally Michael getting rid of the condom, but this time he seriously can’t move. Michael lays down right next to him and for a while, they just lay there, chests moving quickly and their breaths being obnoxiously loud in the otherwise quiet room.

“I seriously need a shower,” is the first thing that leaves Aaron’s mouth when he’s finally capable of talking once more. Michael next to him laughs. But when Aaron turns his head to look at him, Michael’s already looking back.

“So… shower and then dinner?”

Aaron’s so surprised at the proposition, that his first instinct is to look away. He sees the clock on one of the bedside tables and it’s only four o’clock, but if they’re gonna shower together, they might as well start dinner right after. It’s just…

“So…,” he looks back at Michael to see his reaction, “I’m staying overnight?”

Michael’s smile slips and Aaron hates to see it gone, but he needs to hear the answer.

“I hope so. Or is there somewhere else you… need to be?”

Aaron hears the uncertainty behind it and just smiles.

“No, not at all. But I should let dad know I’m staying over. The last time I didn’t come back from a date till night time, I had the whole police force looking for me.”

“Overprotective dad?”

“Wait till you see. So far he hated everyone I introduced to him.”

“Entitled sister, overprotective father… looks like I’m gonna have fun with your family.”

“Yeah, you’re never really bored with them,” laughs Aaron. “So… shower?”

“I believe I have a big enough shower for both of us.”

“Good. Cause I really wanna blow you and you haven’t come twice yet, so we can do it in the shower.”

***

Aaron wakes up with Michael’s arm around him and his back pressed to Michael’s chest. He can feel Michael’s morning erection against his butt and he sighs, tired. He might be young and like sex, but he’s tired and sore and he’s not having sex any time soon.

“Stop wiggling around,” comes a grumpy voice from behind him. It’s low and rusty and makes Aaron shiver.

“Then get your cock away from me. I seriously can’t anymore.”

Michael laughs, before pulling away and stretching. Aaron rolls on his belly and smiles tiredly at him. Michael’s eyes are gentle when he finally opens them and looks at Aaron.

“But hey, it was worth it right?”

“Oh, yes, definitely. Please tell me you have something edible for breakfast here.”

“Hey! My pasta with a cheese sauce is the best.”

“Maybe when you don’t burn it.”

“And whose fault is that?”

Aaron just winks at him. He’s not regretting it, even though his dinner was hardly edible thanks to their make-out session in the kitchen.

“I’m not sorry.”

Michael just smiles and leans for a kiss. Aaron lets him kiss him for a while before pulling away, frowning at him.

“Morning breath sucks.”

“I’m sure I have a spare toothbrush somewhere. Wanna shower?”

“Oh, no. We tried that twice yesterday and it didn’t work out either once. I’m showering first, you can find the toothbrush in the meantime.”

By the time they’re both done with the shower and are free to kiss once more, it’s almost noon. Aaron grabs his phone with a long-suffering sigh.

“Problem?” frowns Michael from his closet, where he’s trying to find some clothes that aren’t wrinkled like the shirt he wore yesterday.

“No. Yeah. Not really. It’s just Blaire.”

“Oh. So now I have to worry about both father and little sister?”

“Shut up,” answers Aaron with a smile. “She’s just asking if I’m gonna go right back to campus from here or if I’m stopping by home. Which is ridiculous considering I didn’t take car with me yesterday.”

“Do you need to leave right now?”

“No.” Aaron’s not ready to leave just now. He’s enjoying himself and the moment he leaves it’s back to reality of exams and preparations for bigger exams. And Michael doesn’t look that excited about him leaving either. “We can have our brunch. But I’ll need to leave after that. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I should get back to the kid’s papers anyway. They’ve been going after me about it for long enough. So… what do you wanna get?”

“Something sweet, like pancakes or waffles. With chocolate.”

“Seriously? Chocolate pancakes? What are you, five?”

“I’d hope not for your own sake.”

***

He gets home after one, Michael drives him. His suit trousers and his dad’s shirt are all wrinkled and just don’t look as good as they did yesterday. Michael doesn’t seem to mind, though, when he says goodbye with a long, deep kiss.

He’s home for only a minute when a doorbell rings. He frowns but goes to open the door.

“Hi,” smiles Layla at him. She’s standing there in a nice, white dress that brings out her dark skin nicely and her hair is in firm locks. Her lips are bright red and her eyes are sparkling when she looks at him. “Sorry, am I interrupting? I’m here for Blaire.” She’s holding a box in her hands. Aaron just shrugs and stands away.

“Come in. You okay with staying in the living room? I’ll look for her.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Aaron really hopes he finds Blaire quickly. He needs to leave pretty soon and wants to at least for a while lay down and think about the awesome few hours he just had, so he doesn’t really feel like hanging around with Blaire’s friends.

But he just can’t find her anywhere. She’s not in her room, or in bathroom or anywhere in the whole damn house. He even checks his dad’s office. Which wasn’t as good idea as he thought it was.

“Aaron,” his dad smiles at him brightly. “You were out pretty… is that my shirt?”

“Yes, it was Blaire’s idea, don’t ask. Speaking of Blaire – don’t you know where she is? Her friend is here.”

“She went out to bring back lunch, should be back any minute. Wait, what’s the rush? You’re all dressed up, I didn’t even know you had date and then you text me that you’re not coming home. So, is it the guy you’ve been texting constantly for weeks?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, it is,” Aaron grins happily. “And we had a great night and even better morning.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He took me to brunch.”

“And yesterday?”

“We went for a coffee, he cooked me dinner. You don’t want to hear the in between.”

“No, I don’t,” snorts his dad. “So I take it we’ll see you more regularly now?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. The entrance exams are in two weeks and I seriously need to study for them. Michael’s cool with it,” he adds quickly. “We talked today and he’s cool with it. Can I go now? This turned weird.”

“Fine, go. But I want to meet that boyfriend of yours at some point, got it?”

“Sure, dad. You sure Blaire’s gonna be here soon?”

“You know how she gets about me eating properly.”

“Yeah. Thank God her tries at cooking ended with the second fire.”

“Don’t even joke about that, I still have nightmares about it. Will you eat lunch with us?”

“No, thanks, I’ve had enough. I’ll go entertain Layla and I’ll see you for a coffee after lunch?”

“You going back to dorms after?”

“Yup. So I’ll see ya.”

He goes back to Layla, who is standing on the terrace instead of the living room. Aaron doesn’t really mind, if she’s Blaire’s friend she knows the house and knows her way around it.

“Sorry, it looks like Blaire’s just ran out for a lunch. She should be here any minute. Anything I can help you with?”

“No. Not really. That is a really sweet pool you’ve got here.”

“Yeah. It’s seen some pretty sweet parties in its time. Blaire was never allowed on them. I don’t think she forgave me for that yet.”

“Can’t say I blame her. You look good in that shirt.”

“Thanks, but it’s not really my style. Never was. Always enjoyed t-shirts with shorts, though.”

They talk for a minute and Aaron’s sure that if he wasn’t giddy with his feelings for Michael and didn’t want to just lay down for a while, he’d actually have fun with her. But as it is he’s more than happy when Blaire finally comes home.

“Oh, hey. Nice walk of shame outfit.”

“I assure you there was no shame this morning,” he winks at her. “Layla here came to see you about something and I’ve already eaten, so I’m gonna go pack. Nice seeing you again, Layla.”

“And you, Aaron.”

He smiles at her and waves at Blaire before quickly going to his room. Blaire just laughs at the way his shirt is all wrinkled and even his trousers don’t look as good as they did yesterday. But his smile is bright and he looks content, so she figures she won’t have to yell at Santorski tomorrow.

“He’s really hot,” says Layla from next to her. Blaire snorts. “Okay, so I’ve got some things that remind me of Justin and I was thinking we can ruin it together…?”

“Sounds like fun.”

It was. They burn most of the things, all of those that can be burned, and just destroy the rest of it. Blaire is actually having fun.

“You know… I never thought that I’d feel the same way I did about Justin, but… Aaron is really nice. And… well, hot,” she smiles at Blaire cockily. Blaire snorts.

“Yeah, no. That’s not happening.” She wants to continue, to explain, but Layla interrupts her.

“So what? I’m not good enough for your brother?”

“Half brother, and no, this is not what I’m saying.”

“Oh, right. So you’re saying that he’s too good for me? Too hot?”

“No, Layla, that is not what I meant at all!”

“Yeah, well, guess what, princess, you’re not too hot yourself. You’re a virgin, who can’t drive.”

“Oh. Okay, first, virgin is not an insult. And second – hursh much, Lay?”

Layla just rolls her eyes.

“Whatever. I’m going now.”

Blaire just sighs, but goes to the kitchen to get one of the sandwiches she got for her father. She gives it to him and he thanks her, apologizing for not eating it with her. She just rolls her eyes and waves him off. His job is important and they eat dinners together, it’s fine. She then grabs another two sandwiches and takes them to Aaron’s.

“How do you do it?” she moans the moment she’s in his room. Aaron rolls his eyes and pulls on a shirt. Blaire just smirks when she notices the love bites on his shoulders and neck before the shirt covers most of them.

“Michael’s right, you have no manners.”

“It will never stop being weird hearing you call Santorski by his name.”

“Get used to it, because we’re official,” he winks at her cockily. “And what do I do?”

“You always make my friends fall for you. Except for Ri.”

“Yeah, she’s known me since she was like three, so I don’t think that counts. And what do you mean, making your friends fall for me? I haven’t met your friends in ages.”

“Layla. I’m talking about Layla. She’s got a crush on you.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“She just confessed,” rolls Blaire her eyes. “Seriously, big brother, could you maybe try not to be so fucking charming?”

“I can’t, it comes to me naturally,” he smiles at her before zipping up his back. Blaire tries to give him one of the sandwiches. Aaron refuses. “Thanks, but I’ve just eaten. Michael and I slept long and then went for a brunch, so I’m still full.”

“So… first date went good, I presume.”

“Oh, sis, you have no idea.”

Blaire does, but she doesn’t want to think about that where her brother and her history teacher are concerned. She hoped Aaron would have at least enough sense not to do it on the first date, but whatever, it’s his life. And it’s not like he was a virgin even before that.

“You told him about your plan to go to Harvard? Or Yale, which is almost worse when speaking about traveling here from LA.”

“No. It’s not exactly the best topic for the first date.”

“Does the morning after even count as first date?”

“Don’t know. And morning after isn’t any better for that conversation. I’ll tell him, okay? Next time I see him, I’ll tell him.”

Aaron’s bright smile is gone and he has worry lines on his forehead. Blair sighs. She doesn’t want to bring him down, she likes to see him happy. But she also knows that Aaron wants a permanent relationship, not just a one night stand.

“Hey, it’s not so hard nowadays. The distance relationship thing. You’ve got skype and phones that can face time nowadays, you can keep in touch.”

“Blaire… don’t. I know you’re trying to help, but don’t.”

“Sorry. Here, take the sandwiches with you, you can eat them for a dinner. And please, try to eat regularly back there. I know you don’t eat for days and then eat everything in your way. That’s not healthy.”

“Thanks, mum.”

“Speaking of which – Natalie called, again.”

“Shit.” He might have been avoiding her for a while now. First he was just studying almost all the time so he was too tired to try reaching out. Then he had a date with Michael and wasn’t able to think about anything else and didn’t want to just babble it out to his mother. So yeah. He probably should call her. “Thanks, Blaire, I completely forgot about her.”

“That is just sad.”

He rolls his eyes. She knows very well that “sad” isn’t good enough word for their relationship. They never really had the proper relationship of a mother and a son, but it’s been worse since his teenage years.

***

He doesn’t go home for three weeks. First he’s preparing for his exams and everything that he needs to do to get to Harvard and then he’s mostly trying to recover from all the all-nighters he pulled. Michael’s with him on the phone through texts during most of it and he seriously couldn’t be more grateful.

_On our next date, we’re doing whatever you want to do and I’m paying_

_You seriously don’t need to do that_

_I know. I want to. So? What’s it gonna be?_

_You sure about it?_

_Absolutely. I’m packing already, gonna spend today with family and I’m all yours for the weekend. So what you wanna do?_

_Okay, but remember, you wanted it like that. We’re going skating_

Aaron moans and presses the place on his nose between his eyes. He should have known Michael would come up with something like that.

They talked about what they do to keep in shape. While Aaron likes weight-lifting and baseball and then mostly things like yoga and pilates (don’t laugh, he got a lot of girls from those classes), Michael likes jogging and volleyball and skating. So they mostly agree to disagree in that topic.

_We can go see Dodgers some other time?_

He smiles at Michael’s offer. It’s sweet, but if Michael really doesn’t like baseball, he’d rather go with Jess. She’s very passionate about baseball and even though she’s not a fan of Dodgers, it’s fine as long as they don’t play Giants.

_No, it’s okay. I promised, right? But I don’t have skates and I don’t think Blaire’s would cut it_

_Too pink?_

_To hell with that, she has a fucking Cinderella feet_

Michael doesn’t answer for a while and Aaron smiles. He misses him.

He knows they only had one date and everything, but he misses him. It’s similar to the thing he had with Sabih and to some extent with Jess, when they first met, but it’s more intense.

_There are places you can borrow them. Tomorrow morning? It’s too hot for skates in the afternoon_

_Agree with that. At nine for skates and then lunch?_

_Sounds perfect. Do you have something against beaches?_

Aaron just smiles. Beach means the chance of getting Michael without a shirt. He’s definitely not complaining.

He gets home just so he can join Mel in the kitchen in preparations of dinner. He likes to cook and when he does it with her he always learns something new.

“So, how is that boyfriend of yours?”

“Blaire gossiped again, huh?” sighs Aaron, but he smiles after.

“You can’t really blame her. I mean – her teacher? She doesn’t want to out him to anyone in school, but needs to talk about it.”

Aaron smiles at that. His sister has many faults, but once she actually takes an interest in something, she’s really cool with it.

“I hear he’s very handsome.”

Mel’s eyes sparkle and Aaron laughs.

“Oh, yes, he’s so… handsome,” he winks at her and she smiles at him brightly.

Blaire joins them shortly before dinner and Aaron suffers teasing that he doesn’t even understand because they switch to Spanish. But by Blaire’s sly looks it’s nothing good.  
Mel says her goodbyes before the dinner is truly ready, but her daughter is in the city and Aaron assures her he can take it from here. They prepare the table together and in a minute Aaron’s ready to serve, so Blaire goes fetch their father.

But Blaire doesn’t stop her teasing. When dad asks about Michael, she asks if he talked about history a lot. When they talk about family vacation, she quips in saying she wants to go somewhere where’s a lot of green, because that’s such a nice color, isn’t it, Aaron? It takes only a while for their father to sigh and give both of them a look.

“Okay, what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

The two of them reply at the same time and dad raises his eyebrows. Aaron stares at Blaire and she has enough decency to look sheepish.

“Really? So, Blaire, do you know Aaron’s new boyfriend?” Blaire just bites her lip and smiles innocently at their father. “Are you dating one of Blaire’s illegal, may I remind you, classmates?”

“Of course not!” Aaron’s disgusted face isn’t pretended, he seriously considers Blaire to be a kid. He sighs and kicks Blaire under the table. Of course he knew he would have to tell dad the whole truth, he just wanted to do it in his own time.

“Then what? Does he have a history of drug problem?”

“Of course not!” Probably. Most likely. “Can you not think the worst of him already? He’s a decent bloke.”

“Aaron’s right. This one’s really nice, daddy. Well, at least to him.”

“He would be perfectly nice to you too, if you weren’t such a brat.”

“Hey!”

“Both of you, enough. What’s going on?”

Aaron rolls his eyes and sighs.

“It’s nothing bad. He’s just Blaire’s teacher. History, if you couldn’t tell.” He glares at her once more and she sticks her tongue out at him. And seriously, Aaron’s so close to paying her back the same way.

“Really. He must be older then, right?”

“It’s not like he’s thirty and I’m fifteen. There’s maybe eight years between us? And isn’t it better than me dating an illegal kid?”

“You’re right,” sighs his dad, suddenly looking tired. “Of course you’re right. It’s just… you’re just starting college and he already has a job.”

“I’m not just starting college, law just takes a little longer to study, that’s all. And… we fit.”

“Yeah, that’s truth,” snorts Blaire. “You should see them together. They flirt like crazy.”

“How would you know? You’ve seen us once.”

“Well, I like you together. I like the way you smile when you text and I certainly never saw Santorski smile the same way he does around you.”

“Again – you’ve seen us once.”

“I want to meet that guy of yours before you go to Harvard, okay?”

“Dad!” hisses Aaron. “I’m still not in.” Dad just smiles at him.

***

They meet on the Westside, near the beaches, both of them are there by cars this time. Before Aaron can say anything, Michael kisses him hello and he grins stupidly after that. Michael’s wearing light colored shorts and a black tank top and looks amazing in it. He’s tanned, because everyone in California is, and Aaron has a hard time looking away from him. He hopes that his own black shorts and white V-neck shirt have at least half of the effect Michael’s clothes have.

“Hey. Um, so…where can I lent a pair of roller skates?”

Michael tries to pay for the skates, but Aaron refuses, reminding him that it’s his time to pay. Michael can pay next time. Aaron’s not really that bothered by money, but he wants to say thanks for being there for him and yet not demanding more of his time than he could give. Which wasn’t much.

Michael warned him to take some socks with him, so at least he’s prepared for that.

“I’m still not sure about this,” sighs Aaron, when he sits on a bench and Michael helps him tie the skates. Michael has an amused smile on.

“You really never tried that before?”

“Wasn’t really that interested with tugging with my little sister when it started being popular. Then it just wasn’t worth the embarrassment.”

Michael smiles at him all predatory and he hopes he isn’t as red as he thinks he is right now.

“Then I’ll have to teach you.”

“You sure you’re good at that? I’ve heard some complains.”

“Your sister isn’t really the most objective source.”

Aaron just laughs. Michael ties his skates much faster and then he offers his hands. Aaron sighs, but takes them and gets up.

It’s not that bad. At least he manages to get up and stay up even when Michael lets go of his hands.

“Okay, so, it’s the same like the classic, ice skates.”

“I live in LA and haven’t gotten to roller skating. Why do you think I know how to ice skate?”

Michael laughs and once more takes his hands. He takes him to the middle of the road, so that Aaron has enough space around himself. He’s not really doing anything the whole time, though, he just holds to Michael’s hand and Michael takes him this small space. When they stop Aaron lets go of the breath he was holding in.

“Okay, but you really need to breathe while skating. It’s really important for your life, you know?”

“Fuck off.”

Aaron aimed for annoyed, but he can’t help the smile on his face. He still has a weird sense of people watching him and mocking him for his inadequacy, but Michael’s still smiling and watching him with gentle eyes and that’s all that’s important.

“Just watch me, okay? I’ll skate for a bit and then come back, so when you try, I’m here. Deal?”

Aaron just nods. He kinda wants to just watch Michael move, because he looks fantastic, but he makes himself concentrate on what he’s doing so he’s able to mimic it.

“Ready?”

Aaron takes a deep breath before nodding. He makes a careful half step half slide and then he’s moving. It’s okay for a while, but then he loses balance and is on his way to land on his ass, but Michael’s suddenly in front of him and tugging his shirt so he lands on Michael instead of the hard pavement with his face in Michael’s tank top. And isn’t that much better option?

“You okay down there?” comes an amused voice from above him. Aaron groans and pulls away a little bit, just enough so he can actually see Michael, but he’s still holding on to him.

“Told you I’d be useless.”

“No, you just told me you’ve never done it before. And you’re doing good. Come on.” He slides his hands from Aaron’s shoulders to his hands. “I’ve got you, let’s try again.”  
Michael skates backwards for a while, not really tugging Aaron with him, but helping with his own skating. After a while he stops looking at his own legs and looks up at Michael. He’s smiling at him and Aaron can’t help himself and returns the smile.

“Here you go. I’m letting go now, okay?”

But he doesn’t, not entirely. He lets go one of Aaron’s hands, but he just squeezes the other one, intertwining their fingers and instead of skating backwards starts skating right next to Aaron. Aaron almost falls right then, but he balances himself and smiles at Michael, before looking away.

They skate in silence for a while, Aaron’s just watching the beach next to them. It isn’t that full, not yet, but there are a few families laying out their blanket, a few groups playing volleyball and even few surfers. It’s not really hot yet, the weather is bright and the whole day feels a little bit lazy.

“This is great,” Aaron finally says after a while. Michael’s smile gets wider.

“I know, right? And you should see the road along the river, it’s beautiful.”

“Maybe some other time,” Aaron smiles shyly at him and Michael laughs.

“I told you you’re gonna love it.”

“Whatever. I’m almost sure it’s the company, not skating itself.”

They talk about what Michael was doing for the last few weeks. Aaron knows the basics from their texts, but he wants to know more. He laughs when Michael describes Josh’ torture in the form of Kings being out of the Stanley cup run and grimaces when he tells him Tori canceled three times because she was needed in the hospital.

Aaron’s interested in what’s Michael saying, he really is. It’s just that Harvard is supposed to start sending out emails that weekend and he finds himself checking his phone regularly.

“And then Tony suck me off in the bathroom.”

“There’s no way he’s as good at it as I am,” Aaron replies, but he can feel his cheeks redden. He is paying attention, okay? You can’t be a student without learning to multitask. But he gets the hint and quickly shoves his phone back to his pocket. “Sorry, I don’t mean to seem uninterested. So, was Josh pissed enough to leave the two of you alone in the bar?”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Michael ones more skates right in front of Aaron and stops there, looking him in the eyes. Aaron still doesn’t know how to stop like that, but it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need it now and considering he doesn’t plan to ever skate without Michael, he probably won’t ever need it. “You okay? What’s going on?”

“Sorry, it’s just… I’m waiting for an email from… my college. They’re supposed to start sending them this weekend and I know that this means they probably won’t start till Monday and I was really looking forward to this date, but…”

“You’re nervous about you getting… there. Hey, where did you even applied to?”

Aaron grimaces before sighing.

“Can we sit down for this?”

Michael frowns, but nods. There’s a bench not that far away and they skate there in silence. Michael still didn’t let go of his hand, so that’s good. Right?

“You’re not going to Europe, are you?”

“No.” Aaron tries to laugh, but it comes out more like a snort. “But… close. I want to go to Harvard and applied also for Yale.”

“Wow. Aiming high, huh?”

Aaron grimaces and looks away.

“Sorry, that came out wrong. That’s great! What major?”

“Law.”

Michael laughs and when Aaron looks back at him, he has a little crazy look on his face.

“Harvard law. Wow.”

“Yeah. You said that already.”

“Yeah, but it’s… it’s really great. Harvard law school? That has to be so hard to get there! Did your father study here?”

“No, his and mum’s alma matter is Yale. They met here and I was born in New York, a few months before their finals. They both got job here, though, so we moved.”

“So if not Yale, then why not Stanford? There is a good law program, right?”

“Yeah, but… it’s not really Ivy league school, is it?

“True. So… how did you come to Harvard?”

“Promise not to laugh?” Michael raises eyebrows at him, but nods. “Legally blonde.” He sees Michael wants to laugh, but he just bites his lip really, really hard. “You promised! Plus, you can’t say that Elle Woods isn’t an icon.”

“I would never in my life insult Elle Woods like that. She is a genius.”

They both laugh after that and it’s light and good hearted and Aaron feels much better.

“So… Harvard, huh? That’s far away.”

“About three thousand miles.” Aaron smiles, but it’s bitter. “You know, I was looking forward to it. No annoying little sisters, no bitching mother with her newest boyfriend, no overprotective father.”

“What changed?”

Aaron just looks at him, unbelieving, for a while.

“I hoped I’ll meet someone there. I was never able to find here anyone who would want more than sex or a short, exciting almost-relationship. I thought I’d find something better when going to Harvard. But I don’t want to anymore. Meet someone new.”

“No?”

Michael’s eyes are sparkling and his hand is right next to Aaron’s on the bench between them. Aaron just smiles and covers Michael’s hand with his own.

“No.”

For a while, they sit there, looking at each other. Michael’s the first to break that eye contact this time and then they watch beach in front of them. It’s warmer now with more people on the beach and it’s not so silent anymore. Kids ale screeching and laughing and parents are shouting after them, some groups of people are loud and obnoxious and there’s even a boom box playing somewhere.

“So… You’d be out of town most of the year for some time.”

“Yup. I applied before I met you.”

“Stop.” Michael shakes his head and the look he gives Aaron is hard. “Stop it, okay? You’re planning to be a lawyer and that obviously goes back far before me. And I get it. I wanted to be a teacher for years. And if you need to go away for a time to make it happen, so what? If we want to, we’ll make it work.”

Aaron doesn’t really believe his luck. He tries to imagine one of his ex-partners reacting to news of him going so far away and comes back with anger and disappointment every single time. But not Michael.

“I want to. Make it work.”

Michael finally looks back at him. He’s smiling and Aaron answers that almost automatically.

“Me too.”

Aaron’s not sure who moves first, but in the next moment they’re kissing. Michael’s holding him as close as he possibly can without Aaron climbing in his lap and Aaron scrunches Michael’s tank top in one of his hands while running the second one through Michael’s hair.

It feels right. He’s not sure that it’s gonna work with them having only few months to get to know each other before him leaving for at least three years, but at that moment, it feels right to sit here on this bench and kiss Michael senseless.

“Hey,” murmurs Michael when they break apart for the third time to breath for a while. “We should probably head back to return your skates. We should be just in time then to find us some lunch.”

“You’ve got somewhere to be this afternoon?”

“Not really, why?”

“I just… if I go home after, I’ll just fret about the mail.”

“Oh, so you wanna spend time with me just to not think about something else? Is that all I am now, a time holder?”

There’s laughter in Michael’s voice and Aaron pretends to think for a while before sighing.

“Yup, that’s it. Just a time holder.”

Michael swaps him across a hip before they’re laughing together.

***

When Santorski ends their class, Blaire takes a breath before stepping up to him. History is her worst subject, dragging her average down and she’s gonna do something about it.

“Hey, mister Santorski,” she smiles, a little bit nervous, and looks around to make sure all her classmates are gone by now. Santorski raises his eyebrows at her, looking skeptical and just a little bit wary. “I wanted to apologize. For the whole thing with miss Smith…? It wasn’t really a great idea to begin with and… well, it was not my place to do something like that.”

“Well, miss Fitz, as much as what you’re saying is true, you certainly can deliver an apology.” When she looks up he’s genuinely smiling at her.

“I’ve learned from my brother,” she winks at him and is glad to see that he’s really amused by that remark. “Anyway, that’s just a part of why I came to you. Can we maybe talk about my extra assignment from the beginning of the semester? And maybe can I get another one? I really want to get better.”

“Well, miss Fitz. It looks like your family is full of surprises.”

“Yeah, and that’s just this half of family,” she snorts before wincing. “Sorry, I didn’t think.”

“I know about his mother. But really, let’s… not talk about it. It’s weird enough as it is with seeing you here every day.”

“Sorry,” Blaire winces slightly. Santorski snorts.

“But then again, in some ways I owe you, right?”

He’s smiling and Blaire can definitely see what Aaron sees in him. She’s still not sure about the whole age gap thing (Santorski is old, okay? Like… thirty years old), but she can see it.

“We don’t really have time for all of this now. Come to my office during lunch break and we’ll see what we’ll come up with, okay?”

They do as he tells her. She grabs a quick lunch before going to his office. He’s eating his own sandwich. It looks bought. She suppresses the need to tell him that Aaron can do a killer sandwich. He’s right, if this is going to work, she needs to stop doing remarks. At least to him.

They talk about the mistakes she did during her last assignment and how it could have been prevented, what he wanted her to do and how she ignored it. How he talks, she starts to see his points. They are mostly identical with Aaron’s jabs at her, she just never realized that Aaron wasn’t entirely joking. She gets a few books from him and he agrees to give her the same assignment, warning her that she will have to try even harder for the mark to have a good impact on her grade. She’s determined to show him that she can do better.

“Oh,” she remembers when she’s all packed and ready to go. “If you break his heart, I’m gonna make your life a living hell.”

He looks slightly surprised, but she’s not joking. She’s a beautiful, sixteen years old girl and he’s a teacher and she just spent almost an hour in his office with the doors closed. She can work with that. And she knows Aaron can take care of himself and she’s done that only three times before, but she sees the way Aaron is since meeting Santorski. Sure, he’s happier, but if something happened, he’d be devastated.

Santorski snorts lightly, but nods.

“Now go. We don’t want you to be late for your next class.”

She rolls her eyes at his laugh when she closes the door behind herself.

***

Aaron’s a nervous wreck.

There aren’t any pressing deadlines or tests now, he’s just supposed to prepare for his finals. But he can’t pay attention even to this little.

He spent the whole Saturday with Michael and it was the last time that he was actually at ease. He spent Sunday with Blaire, mostly just messing around with their dance dance revolution before going back to his dorms, but even that didn’t make him so relaxed.

Since he came back he’s been checking his mail every five minutes. It didn’t matter if he was talking with Sabih or in one of his classes, he had his phone in his hand all the time.

He sighs and refreshes his mail one more time. The class is supposed to end in ten minutes and then he and Jess are going for a lunch and he should really pay attention to that because the last time Jess caught him texting with Michael… wait. Shit. There’s a mail from Harvard in his inbox. Fuck.

He takes his things and leaves the lecture immediately. He doesn’t really care about the dirty look the professor gives him when he’s not silent enough. There’s an email in his inbox and shit, shit this is it!

When he gets out, he sits on a bench, looking at the display without saying a word. This is it. He’s been aiming for this for half his life and dad was trying to help him so hard and even Blaire helped him with his outfit the day he took his exams so she had a hand in it and mum was so pissed that his first choice isn’t Yale and this is it. This is his future.

He closes his eyes and opens the email. He stays like that for a little while. He knows this is not the end of the world, there’s still Yale and even then he could try again next year, but… he worked so hard for this shit. He’s so not ready for this.

When he opens his eyes, he curses. He needs to scroll down a little bit to get through the official shit and… there. There it is.

He could scream the moment he sees it. Instead he jumps to his feet and dances a little victory dance that Blaire would be pissing herself laughing if she saw him doing it in the middle of a hall. There are few other students staring at him, but fuck it, he’s in! He’s in Harvard law.

He should call dad, because he’s the one who helped him the most and not only this year, but ever since he can remember.

He wants to call dad. He’s probably in court right now, but he should at least try.

He thinks he’s calling dad.

But it’s not dad who answers the call.

“Hey, babe, what’s up?”

He would normally comment about the whole “babe” thing, but he hardly even notices.

“I’m in! Mike, I’m in, I can’t believe it, I’m in!”

“In as in Harvard law school in?”

“That’s exactly where I am!”

Michael laughs and Aaron can feel him wanting to do some remark about how he probably isn’t in there right now, but he doesn’t and Aaron can appreciate that.

“That’s awesome, Aaron! Congratulations!”

“I know, right? I just got the email and I can’t believe it, I was in the middle of the class, well, it was mostly the end of it, when I got the email and it’s right there and I’m in and it’s my first try and oh my God, Michael!”

“Okay, why don’t you start with breathing. I’m so proud of you, babe.”

And now that he’s listening and actually breathing he notices the pet name. He chuckles.

“Babe, huh?”

“… yeah.” Michael himself sounds a little bit surprised. “You’ve got a problem with that?”

“No. Not really. Oh my God, I can’t breathe. Is it me or is it hot out there?”

“It’s May in California, so yeah, it’s kinda hot. But rest assured that you are definitely hot.”

“Flatterer.” Aaron’s smiling so hard his cheeks are already starting to hurt.

“We’ve got to celebrate that.”

“Actually, me, Jess and Sabih were talking about hitting the clubs when I get the results. I’m not sure it will happen today, but it’s definitely happening asap. Wanna come?”

“You sure? It’s not like we’re together that long.”

“Does it matter? We’re celebrating and I want you there. I mean, if you’re not afraid to go out during a school night.”

“I can always give them a pop quiz.”

“They’re gonna love you.”

“Please, they already do.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Definitely. Just yesterday I had here a fit gingerhead asking for extra work.”

“Blaire?”

“Yup. She’s actually really decent once you get through her naivety and ignorance.”

“I know.” But still he smiles. Asking for extra work is a step in the right direction for Blaire. “So I’ll text you the details and see you?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

***

As it turns out, they can go celebrating right that night.

They hitch a ride with Jess’ friend, who’s done for the week and going home to the city. Aaron’s mostly glad that he can drink without worrying about his car.

They’re early, so they stand across the street from the club, waiting for Michael. Aaron texts him this and then suffers the combine teasing of Jess and Sabih. The two of them are unstoppable once they start and Aaron’s cursing the day he introduced them.

Luckily, they don’t have to wait long. It takes only a few minutes before Aaron sees Michael coming their way. He straightens and smiles.

“Oh God, I always forget how pathetic he is.”

“Lucky you, they text so often I don’ have the time to forget.”

But by then Michael’s there and Aaron is too distracted to pay attention to them. Michael’s wearing a soft, green (olive, says the voice inside his head that sounds suspiciously like Blaire) shirt and dark blue jeans that cling to his hips and can someone blame him for paying attention to him and only him?

“Hi,” he breathes out with a stupid smile. Michael only smiles at him before marching right to him and soundly kissing him.

“You did it on purpose, didn’t you?” Michael growls into his lips. Aaron’s sure neither Sabih nor Jess can hear him. “That tank top of yours…”

Aaron smirks. He knew that black jeans with a white tank top were the right choice.

“Payback for your tank top last time,” he smirks and quickly kisses Michael once more, before pulling away so that he can see Sabih and Jess. “Guys, this is Michael. Michael, Jess and Sabih.”

“Well, hello there,” almost purrs Jess and Aaron bristles. Michael’s eyes don’t go any lower than her face, though, so he relaxes once more. He knows Michael has no interest in girls, but Jess in her mini black dress is a sight to behold. Michael just waves at her with one hand while the other settles on Aaron’s back. Aaron waits for Sabih’s nod in Michael’s direction before speaking up again.

“Let’s go, then. If we want to take a table we should really get there now.”

The bouncer there is unimpressed with Jess doing her eyes at him and Aaron rolls his eyes. They’ve been to this gay club many times before and Jess’ tricks never worked. When she finally gives up, it’s Aaron’s turn. He laughs at his jokes and makes eyes at him and explains (all wide eyes and almost-fake excitement) that they’re celebrating him getting into Harvard and doesn’t he deserve a great celebration?

They’re let inside in a moment then. Michael’s on him the minute the bouncer is out of sight.

“Should I be worried?” Michael murmurs into his ear. Aaron snorts.

“About him? Please, I have some standards.”

Jess and Sabih just roll their eyes at them.

“Okay, lovebirds, why don’t you find us a table and work it out while I and Sabih go for drinks. First round’s on me. What are you drinking? Michael, you’re doing shots with us, right?”

“Martini and if we’re doing shots, then water.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Aaron takes Michael’s hand and leads him to where he’s seen a free table. The club isn’t really full yet, so they find it quickly. Aaron sits down on a bar chair by the table. He expects Michael to sit on the chair next to his, but Michael surprises him by standing between his parted legs and hugging him tight.

“I’m not sure how I feel about you flirting your way through.” Aaron tenses once more, but when he looks up, Michael’s eyes are sparkling. He’s teasing him, but Aaron has too much experience with people being stupidly jealous about him flirting with others. He would never cheat, he really believes in monogamy, but what’s the hurt in little flirting?

“Well, you’ll have to deal with it,” he shrugs, but wraps his arms around Michael’s shoulders. “Flirting makes my life so much easier. But I’ve heard that sex is so much better when your partner’s jealous,” he sing-songs with an innocent smile. Michael smiles widely.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, baby. You know I’ll take care of you in that way.”

“What’s with the pet names?” Aaron’s trying to pout, but his smile is stronger. Michael shrugs.

“Not sure. You mind?”

“No, not really.” He’s just not used to it. Not in that context, anyway. In bed, during sex, sure, he was called that before. But it was in entirely different voice, different way. Outside of it he’s mostly called sexy, sometimes handsome. But never in that nonchalant voice.

He’s lost in his thoughts and Michael brings him out of it by pressing their foreheads together. Aaron shivers.

“I’m proud of you, Aaron. You deserve a celebration.”

Aaron smiles and closes his eyes. He feels like this is the first moment since opening the email (or maybe since Saturday, really) that his heart isn’t racing and his hands aren’t shaking. He knows that it’s not true, it’s physically impossible, but he feels that way.

Michael suddenly moves away and Aaron’s out of balance for a moment, but he quickly recovers. And then Sabih and Jess are back with three shots of vodka, two martinis and waters for him and Michael, wine for Jess and a coke for Sabih.

“Come on, losers. Let’s get this party started!” Jess’ eyes are already sparkling and Aaron knows that she’s gonna need Sabih’s help by the end of the night.

“To Aaron,” cheers Sabih with his bottle of coke. Jess and Michael chorus him, but they cheer with their shots of vodka. Aaron cheers with them and finishes the shot at once. So what, this is his party after all.

“Let’s go, Aaron. I wanna dance!”

Before he can say a word, Jess’ dragging him to an almost empty dance floor. Not that he minds. He loves dancing, especially with Jess. He can only wink at Michael, before he loses him among other sitting patrons.

Michael just smiles after him. He could feel the tied up energy inside Aaron. A night of dancing will do him good.

“Dude, you’re not really jealous, are you?”

Michael sighs before tearing his eyes from Aaron and moving them to Sabih.

“Of Jess? No, not really.”

“And of the bouncer?” Michael rolls his eyes. “If you are, you seriously need to deal with it. That’s just who he is, he doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to figure that much out. I’ll deal with it,” he shrugs. “It helps that his flirting is pretty clever and hot as fuck.”

“Yeah, no,” snorts Sabih into his glass. Michael just grins.

“Agree to disagree?”

“Amen to that,” answers Sabih before wincing. That makes Michael laugh.

“Pretty brave to go out like that and not drink.”

“Nah, not really. Always got the best blackmail material from these nights. And most of the time they need someone sober with them.”

“Yeah, I can see why.”

Aaron and Jess are drawing attention of everyone around with their dancing. They’re both pretty sexy and know how to move, so it’s no surprise that everyone’s watching. Michael’s okay with that. He never thought about himself like the jealous type, but he also never dated anyone who flirts as easily as breathes the way Aaron clearly does. He’ll have to get used to it.

“So… medicine, huh?”

“Ugh, don’t even. I’m so glad that I don’t have to study for one fucking evening.”

“Know what you mean. My friend Tori is starting in the hospital and I swear she hasn’t relaxed properly for at least ten years.”

“Can you not? My only hope right now is my future.”

“Well, you’re already one step ahead of her. Every time she gets to go out she ends up sloshed after like two beers, because she’s not used to alcohol.”

Sabih laughs at that and Michael smiles, relieved. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about Aaron’s friends not liking him.

***

When the alarm goes off, Aaron’s head explodes. And what the fuck, did drunk him seriously think that alarm was a good idea? But then his blanket moves and there’s silence and shit, did he go home with someone yesterday?

It takes him a few tries to open his eyes and then a few seconds to remember everything.

He’s lying in Michael’s bed, wrapped around him and squeezing him tight. He’s butt naked, but he’s not sore and doesn’t really feel dirty the way he did waking up a few times after a drunken hook up. But his head does hurt and he does feel nauseous.

“How you feelin’?”

Michael’s practically whispering, yet Aaron still winces, closes his eyes once more and burries his face in Michael’s chest.

“Not so good, then.” This time Michael does whisper. Aaron grumbles.

“’at happened?” His voice is rusty and his throat hurts.

“Nothing.” Michael presses him closer to himself and Aaron cuddles even closer. “We danced, drank, you drank some more and around one we went home. Sorry about the alarm clock, but I really need to get up now.”

“No. You make a great pillow.”

“Come on, babe. I need to get to work.”

Aaron moans lightly, but he lets Michael go. The moment Michael’s gone he hugs his pillow and goes right back to sleep.

The next time he wakes up, the throbbing in his head is slightly less hurting, but his mouth feels like a desert where someone died. He opens his eyes carefully and just blinks, surprised when he notices that the curtains are closed and the room is dark. He’s not sure but he could swear that there was light the last time he woke up.

He looks around for a clock and instead finds a glass of water and Tylenol on a bedside table closer to him. He takes the pill and drinks the whole glass before collapsing right back to bed, brings his blanket up to his chin and cuddles into it.

He doesn’t fall asleep again, just gives the pill enough time to act. He thinks about Michael, then listens carefully to the quiet apartment and then squirms guiltily. He’s sure Michael’s in school right now. He let Aaron sleep his hangover in his apartment, his bed!, while he had to go to work. All because Aaron wanted to celebrate on a weekday.

After a while, when the throbbing in his head is still uncomfortable, but not really painful anymore, he gets up and goes to the bathroom. He cleans his face and reaches for a towel before noticing the post-it note on the mirror.

_The red towel’s clean. Take a shower, it’ll make you feel better. Good morning, sunshine!_

Aaron snorts, but listens to the note. He knows he’s gonna feel better, he just wasn’t sure how much he could intrude. But Michael did leave him alone in his home, so he supposes it’s not really intruding.

The moment he steps out of the shower the throbbing in his head is almost completely gone and he’s suddenly hungry. He had dinner last night, but since then nothing. Or so he assumes, because he remembers just bits and pieces from last night – dancing with Jess, making out with Michael, dancing with the whole group, then some other guys, then heavy make-out with Michael and a lots and lots of drinking.

He wraps the towel around his hips before heading to the bedroom. He needs to start looking for his clothes somewhere, right? It’s not as bad as he feared, because all of his clothes are in a pile on the second night stand with his phone on top of it. There wait some texts for him. Most of them are Sabih complaining about his early morning lab time and the fact that he was awake most of the night, looking out for Jess. She texted him only once, close to 5AM, moaning about dying. He ignores both of those texts, but answers to Blaire.

_What the hell did you do to him? He’s late!_

_Does he look hangover? If so then you’re welcome. If not I need him to tell me his secrets_

He might be exaggerating a little, he’s actually not sure how much Michael drank yesterday and he’s pretty sure that it was less then him, but still.

Under his phone there’s a note.

_Can’t find your boxers, so it’s either commando or second drawer on the left_

He smirks when he sees it and goes to said drawer immediately. When he’s there, he thinks about looking around into other drawers, but he shakes his head at the idea. He’s not gonna snoop around through Michael’s things.

He doesn’t bother with anything else than the boxers. It’s not like someone else is in the flat and he’s pretty comfortable with his own body.

Another post-it note is on the kitchen counter, on a pot almost full of coffee.

_You’re welcome to help yourself. I shopped yesterday so whatever you want you should find here somewhere. Enjoy!_

Aaron smiles and pours himself a cup of coffee. He reheats it and then grimaces. When he looks around he sees the pile of post-it notes and a pen on a table in the living room area. He goes fetch it and sticks his own note to the pot.

_Your coffee sucks, remind me to bring you mine the next time I’ll come over_

With that he looks around in the cupboards. He makes himself scrambled eggs and toast and eats it while still standing, quickly drinking his coffee and pouring another one before going back to the bedroom. He finishes putting on his clothes, fires a few texts to Jess, Sabih and Blaire, finishes his second cup and then heads out.

There’s another post-it note on the door.

_Take the keys and lock behind you. Enjoy your day =o)_

Aaron bites his lip, before smiling. He takes the keys, takes the note and hides it behind the one from the bathroom in his wallet.

***

Sadly, him being accepted to Harvard means more than just a party with his friends and Michael and a happy phone call with dad and Blaire.

“Aaron. I don’t really have the time, can’t it wait?”

“Sure, mum,” he sighs, but he’s not really that annoyed. “Call me when you have the time?”

“Sure, sweetie.”

And with that the call ends. Aaron groans and slams his head against a wall. He winces when it hurts a little bit more than he expected.

“You look even more miserable than Jess,” comes from his side. Aaron snorts.

“Shouldn’t you be… somewhere?” Sabih’s always supposed to be somewhere. In library when not in class or in lab.

“No, not really. I wanted to check on Jess – the last time I saw her she was here. Have you seen her?”

“No, not really, but I just got here.”

“Oh. So it was a hot night, huh?” Sabih wiggles his eyebrows at him. Aaron just snorts.

“I was drunk senseless, asshole. Michael wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, you’ve got yourself a gentleman.”

“You bet your ass I did,” he winks at him, smiling.

“So, what was that about?” Sabih gestures to his head. Aaron sighs once more.

“Mum.”

“Oh. You didn’t tell her yesterday?”

“Nope.”

“So what did she say?”

“That she doesn’t really have the time and will call me later.”

“She said that after you told her you got into Harvard?”

“Didn‘t get that far.”

“Your mum is… terrible.”

“That’s not what you wanted to say.” Aaron snorts. He hears what Sabih isn’t saying and he completely agrees. She’s a bitch.

“You gonna tell her about Michael? You looked serious yesterday.”

Aaron sighs and closes his eyes.

“Yeah, I… I think we are. So yeah… I’ll probably end up telling her during summer.”

“You going to her for the summer?”

“Yeah, I still officially live there. And mum doesn’t know about me spending time at dad’s. She thinks I’m spending all my time in the dorms, she would probably be pissed that I spend so much time with dad when I hardly ever go home during the semester. Not that she cares that much to have me there, but she hates that I like dad better.”

“That’s weird, man.”

Aaron snorts. His mother isn’t weird. She’s just really ambitious, career-oriented perfectionist. It would be cool if her perfectionist trait didn’t want her to be also a perfect mother. His dad volunteered to take him when they divorced and Claire agreed that they can take care of him, but she didn’t want that. And because dad didn’t really want to fight, he’s stuck with mum as his first caretaker. Practically he’s been spending more time with dad since he was thirteen and had his first sexual crisis.

Aaron doesn’t really want to go to class that day so he goes to the library to finish three essays that still need to be done. And that way he can text with Michael.

His mum calls two hours later. He asks the girl sitting next to him to look after his things before taking his phone to a booth in one corner of the library.

“Hey, mum.”

“Hello, Aaron. So, what did you need?”

“Nothing, really. Just… the acceptance email from Harvard came yesterday.”

“Oh. What about the Yale one?”

Aaron rolls his eyes.

“Does it matter? I’m in and I don’t really want to go to Yale.”

“But Aaron, you shouldn’t really close the doors to other possibilities of your life.”

“Mum, we talked about this.” And now he’s frustrated. “I agreed to try Yale in case Harvard didn’t work out. But it did and I want to go there.”

“But Yale has much better business law.”

“Have you thought about me not wanting to do business law?”

“So what, you want to be an underpaid DA like your dad?”

“That underpaid DA has an amazing house and never had a problem with money.”

“Yeah, because he married a rich actress.” They’re both silent for a while. Aaron’s really trying not to yell at his mother. “I’m sorry, sweetie, I don’t want to badmouth your dad.”

“Really? Because you’ve done nothing else since your divorce. Whatever, mum,” he adds quickly before she can say something more. “I’m going to Harvard this September. I’ll see you after the end of the semester.”

He ends the call before she has a chance to say something more.

He knows she loves him and that she just doesn’t know how to tell him. But she never asks what is it that he wants.

He fires a text at Michael.

_Finishing last essays before next week’s finals. Need to chill this weekend. Any plans?_

***

They go to beach that Saturday. And they’re not alone.

Aaron tries to talk Jess and Sabih to joining them, but Jess needs to write most of her essays that weekend and Sabih is already in his textbooks for the finals. So it’s just him, Michael and Michael’s high school friend, Tony. Was Michael that nervous when they went to the club?

“Hey,” Michael smiles at him from where he’s standing with some guy in neoprene who’s shaking off water from his almost shoulder-long hair. He’s looking like any hipster ever with his beard and long hair and from what Aaron can see he’s nicely toned. There are muscles under his neoprene so Aaron guesses this is not really his first time surfing. But Michael next to him is only in swimming shorts, showing his toned, slightly hairy chest and his long neck and his smile… Aaron smiles. “I was thinking that you bailed on me.”

“Blame Blaire. I promised to give her a ride and then it took her forever to get ready. Hello,” he adds with private smile when Michael tugs him closer, sliding one arm around his waist and kissing him. It’s not long, just to say hello, before they pull away so Michael can introduce them.

“Aaron, this is my friend from high school, Tony. Tony, this is Aaron, my boyfriend.”

Aaron preens under the word. He knows they’re serious, but neither one of them said the b-word. Till now. Tony gives him one look while finishing his man-bun before snorting.

“I knew you like them young.”

“Piss of, Tony.”

“Is he even legal?”

“Funny,” smirks Aaron. “Dad asked the same thing when he realized my little sister knows my boyfriend.”

“You told him?”

“Blaire was teasing me at dinner, so yeah, he knows. But hey – when the other option is an illegal guy, teacher of your sister suddenly doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Could you not?” grimaces Tony and Aaron guiltily glances away from Michael. Sometimes he forgets other people are around.

“Sorry. So, you surf?”

“Yeah, I used to do so more in Santa Cruz. LA waves suck most of the time, but today it’s actually pretty decent. Do you? Surf?”

“Yeah, right. I tried it once. Twice, technically. It was right after I saw Shelter.”

“Oh, that movie is awesome. We should watch it sometime.”

“What? Shel… what?”

“Don’t worry about it, Tony. It’s just a fag movie.”

“I don’t talk like that,” frowned Tony. Michael just raises his eyebrows at him. “That was fifteen years ago!”

“How long do you guys know each other?!”

“How long do you know Sabih?”

“Fair enough. Was it that weird for you, too?”

“No, not that much. You and Jess on the other hand… I swear to God people were thinking the two of you were gonna fuck after.”

“We did a few times,” he shrugs.

Tony turns out to be a cool guy. He throws sand at them few times when they forget about his existence and Aaron gets a few embarrassing stories about Michael at high school out of it. They all go swimming together a few times and then Tony goes surfing and they have a few minutes to themselves. Sometimes they spend it making out in the sand, sometimes they go into the waves and just mess around.

They buy themselves burgers in a nearby stand for lunch and meet Blaire and Victoria there. Tony flirts a little and Michael keeps Aaron occupied so he doesn’t do something he’d regret later. He knows Tony is cool, but Blaire is his little sister and Victoria is practically his little sister and they’re both illegal, dammit.

Tony has to go not long after that, he has an evening shift at a diner he works as a cook, and he needs to get ready before that. Aaron and Michael stay at the beach for another two hours before going back to Michael’s flat. They watch Shelter together with a large bowl of popcorn on Michaels lap. They’re curled together on the couch, laughing through most of the movie. Aaron’s having a great time.

But at the end of the day, he needs to go back to dorms. Finals are coming and he needs to study at least a little. And he knows that if he spent the night he wouldn’t be able to concentrate the whole Sunday, so he really needs to go.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Here. Your keys.”

Michael just looks at him for a moment. Aaron feels like an idiot standing there with his hand with the keys stretched out to Michael. But then Michael just smiles and wraps Aaron’s fingers around the keys.

“Keep them. That way you can always stay over, even when I have somewhere to be in the morning.”

Aaron smiles, surprised.

“You sure?”

“Yes. Keep it. I’ll make a new spare. I like you having keys to my flat.”

“Yeah. Me too.” They just look at each other for a while, smiling like two idiots. “Uh, I should… You know – finals.”

“Right. Go. We can celebrate some other time.”

“Celebrate? I thought we did that during the week.”

“I had in mind a little more… private celebration,” Michael winks and Aaron can feel himself growing hard in his shorts.

“Yeah, I… I need to go now, or I’ll never leave.”

“I wouldn’t complain.”

“Yeah, no, I really, really need to go.”

***

The finals go on in a blur of tests and too little sleep and now and again texts from Michael reminding him to eat and sleep. And before he knows it, it’s over.

He wakes up Saturday to find Sabih sitting in a chair and looking around their room. They’re both mostly packed, in bags and some boxes. The room’s a mess and it doesn’t look anything like the lived-in room Aaron’s so used to.

“I asked for a single room for next semester.”

“You’ll have to buy your own energy drinks, then. And coffee. And proper food. Seriously, dude, you need to learn how to cook.”

“Or, I can go to my mum every week and moan how I’m too busy to cook for myself.”

“Your mum’s food!” moans Aaron with his eyes still closed. “I’m certainly gonna miss that.”

“So what, my mum’s cooking is cool but I’m too loser?”

“Yes, in fact. But then again I can text with you, but not really with your mum’s cooking.”

They both laugh at that and Aaron finally sits up.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“Kinda. I mean – we’ve practically lived together for three years. It’s weird to think about not living with you anymore.”

“Yeah, no, I’m not gonna miss your snoring.”

“I do not snore!”

Aaron showers quickly and then they finish packing. They help each other move the things in front of the building and sign off. Then there are Sabih’s parents and Aaron helps them move his things to their car. They invite him to lunch with them, but he can’t let his things just lay around here. He’d rather have lunch with them than his mum and her new husband, but he hasn’t seen them in weeks, so he really should meet them.

Mum’s latest Audi rolls close to the building twenty minutes after Sabih’s parents drive off. Aaron sighs, but puts a smile on his face.

Jordan is the first one to come out of the car, in his pant suits and a bright white shirt with the sleeves rolled above his elbow. Suddenly Aron’s reminded of his outfit for his and Michael’s first date and shudders. Jordan has a sharp jaw, a slight stubble, a short, dark hair and Aaron’s starting to feel really weird. He can see the similarity between him and Michael and he’s just so glad that Jordan’s eyes are dark brown and not bright green like Michael’s.

Mum has a light brown pantsuit on with a white shirt underneath. Her manicure is perfect as is her make-up – light, with an eyeliner around her eyes and a red lipstick on her lips. Her brown, long hair is pulled in a tight bun and her shoes are thick high heels.

“Aaron, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that, mum,” he grumbles, but lets himself be pulled into a hug. It’s not tight, it’s mostly for people around them to see and not for them. It doesn’t matter that they haven’t seen each other far too long.

“How were your finals?”

“Fine.”

“Aaron, man!” Jordan’s smile is wide and fake and Aaron would love to wipe it off. Would kissing Michael in front of him do it?

“Hey, Jordan. So, can we go now?”

***

Aaron hates his stay back at home. Hates it.

He can watch TV just like at dad’s, but with no Blaire he finds it quite boring. Jordan’s home during the day sometimes too and he also wants to watch TV and there’s no bickering with him about it, there’s only fighting. And as much as Aaron hates fighting, he hates Jordan almost more. That asshole has been working in Starbucks since his high school graduation and the only reason why he’s a manager is because he can sweet talk costumers and is a jerk to employees. And Aaron hates people like this.

He can’t really call with Michael because he doesn’t want Jordan or mum to overhear. They text a lot, but he tries not to do it all the time around them. They don’t really go on dates, because Michael’s finishing most of his classes so there’s lots of extra work and people asking for another chance and he doesn’t really have the time for anything else nowadays.

It doesn’t help that mother decided to play a perfect family once more. One that have dinner together every night. Except when mother is late. Or Jordan has a late shift. And of course, Aaron is the one who cooks most often. He doesn’t mind, not really, he likes cooking and mum calls every day around four to ask if she should buy some dinner on her way home, so it’s not like he has to do it.

Either way he’s slowly going crazy. He knows he’s technically not locked in the house, but in the circle of fights he feels like it.

First it’s the coffee, because of course it is. Jordan has a Starbucks blend in the house and Aaron hates it and tries to get them buy his brand. And that’s how the first argument starts. The afternoon he comes back from dorms. Aaron’s sure it’s some kind of record – they went almost four hours without fighting!

The next fight is about his employee. According to what he said the poor guy was trying to outrun his cold for far too long and ended up in EP. Of course Jordan was just bitching about how he needs to find someone who would be willing to come instead of him to work. Asshole.

The next fight is with his mother about his fights with Jordan. And so the circle begins.

In the end he’s glad for his alone time in the kitchen. He gets to do something with his hands and doesn’t really have to think about anything.

So of course it’s dinner when things get crazy.

“She’s not really that bright, but she’s pretty and right around your age.”

Aaron clenches his fists before consciously unclenching them and breathing out. Jordan’s talking about his newest employee and Aaron seriously considers going to her and telling her to run as far as possible.

“I can hook you up, if you want to.”

“No, thanks.”

“Not that I approve of this kind of meeting other people, but Aaron, you should get back into dating. You ended it with your last girlfriend more than a year ago. It’s okay to start dating again.”

He knows. Truth be told, he hasn’t thought about Kat in almost a year.

“Yeah, I know, I just… I don’t want to meet with that girl.”

“Why not? I’m not saying you need to date her, you can start more… free.” Jordan wiggles his eyebrows and Aaron throws up a little bit in his mouth.

“I don’t really need help in that department, either. Thanks.”

“In that case, you should really start thinking about settling down. Aaron, you’re almost twenty-three. In your age….”

“I was almost born already, yes, I know, mum, thanks for reminding me.”

“Don’t take that tone with your mother, young man.”

And seriously, Jordan has no right to call him that. He’s maybe as old as Michael and fuck, he seriously needs to stop thinking like that.

“Fine, then stop setting me up.”

“It wouldn’t hurt you to meet someone new, Aaron. Get back to the game.”

“I am in the game, okay? Or rather, I never was off and now…” Now he is. Because he’s taken. “Just… I have my love life covered, okay?”

“Oh, so you already have someone!” Jordan’s smile is wide and he pats his shoulder in congratulations. Aaron winces.

“That’s amazing, sweetie.” Even his mother has a bright smile on her still make-up covered face. “Do we know her? What’s her name? Are you going to introduce her to us?”

Aaron looks up and looks at both their faces. He’s done. He’s so fucking done with them.

“No, I don’t think you do. His name’s Michael.”

Jordan’s face falls the moment he starts the sentence, but his mother’s smile just gets smaller and she looks confused.

“Don’t you mean Michaela?”

“No, mum, I mean Michael. He’s a guy.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, mum, I’m pretty sure that the person I sleep with is a guy.”

“You’re a fag?!” Jordan practically screams and now Aaron has a smile on his face. He knew that if nothing else, then his coming out would make his new step-father angry.

“Depends on your definition of the word,” he winks at him happily.

“Aaron,” his mother is talking slowly and has the face that means she’s thinking hard. “Are you… gay?”

“No, technically not.”

“But… are you with a man?”

“Yes.”

“So you are a fag!”

“Once again, that depends on the definition of the word. If you include only gay people, then no, but if you include all LGBT community, then yes, I am a fag.”

“You goddamn faggot!”

“Wait, wait a minute! LGBT community? If you’re not gay, then what…?”

“The B part. Bisexuality.”

“But that means you’re attracted to both men and women.” He would be impressed if he didn’t know that mum’s knowledge doesn’t stop her ignorance. “That means that you still can find yourself a nice woman!” And there it is.

“That’s not how it works, mum. The fact that I can love both women and men doesn’t mean I can just… fall in love with whoever. That’s not how it works.”

“So you love that… boy?”

“He’s not a boy, for god’s sake. And… I… I, I don’t know. I mean, I could, I think. I’m on my way there. Or I think so. I don’t know, it’s different.”

“So maybe you don’t really love him. You’re just confused and you really like girls.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. I was with men before and I felt different for them than I feel now for Michael.”

“No.” Jordan’s voice is hard and much louder than was needed for the relatively small kitchen. “No fag will live in my house.”

“Lucky me, cause technically, this is mum’s house.”

“Nat!”

His mother is looking at him with a hard stare. Aaron doesn’t need to look her in the eyes for much longer, before he pulls away from the table and heads to his bedroom. He’s just glad that he didn’t unpack his bags and a box that is still in his room and that he never bothered to bring up things from his Dodge. That way he can just put them back to the car and head home.

“Make sure to take all your filthy things with you. Whatever you leave behind I’ll burn.”

“Good,” is all Aaron can reply to that. But he does go back to take a few things from his childhood that he wants to remember before finally leaving.

By the time he rings the door at his dad’s house, it’s dark out there.

“Who the hell comes by so… Aaron?” His dad looks genuinely surprised when he sees him there. “Why do you ring the doorbell? You know you’re always welcome.”

“Sure, but… It’s not for the weekend. Mum kicked me out.”

“What? Do you have your things here? Let’s get them to your room.”

He would be surprised, if he didn’t see the anger in his father’s eyebrows. The moment they’re upstairs, doors to Blaire’s room open and she comes out. When she sees two bags in Aaron’s hands and a box in their father’s, she frowns.

“What the…,” she quickly glances to their dad, “hell happened?”

“Mum kicked me out. You wanna help? There’s still two more bags and three boxes in the car.”

“I have a better idea. I’ll go to the kitchen and do all of us hot chocolates and then I’ll bring it to the living room where we can all watch Disney movies.”

“That’s not fair! Disney movies are your comfort zone!”

“Shut up, big brother, we both know you have a thing for Herkules.”

“And Meg. Herkules and Meg both.”

Aaron looks at his dad, not believing what he’s hearing. But dad just winks at him, smiles and then takes his box to Aaron’s room.

“How do you even know it?”

“You had a thing for them since you were little.”

“Yet you still were surprised.”

“Son, I was surprised about the situation, not you with a guy.”

They just store all his things into his room before sitting down in living room.

_Told mum. Didn’t go well. Camping at dad’s_

He fires the text to Michael before overthinking it and takes the chocolate from Blaire.

“After that it’s Toothless, then Big Hero 6. If I see one of your princesses I’m gonna scream.”

_Wanna come over?_

Aaron smiles at his phone.

_Not now – movie night with family. Tomorrow?_

_Come whenever. Don’t bother knocking, you’ve got the keys_

“See that? He always gets that stupid grin when texting him.”

“Yeah, I know. The blushing is worse, though.”

“Blushing?!”

Aaron groans and throws a pillow at his dad. The bastard just laughs.

***

It’s the end of semester and for once, Santorski actually shows how cool he is by giving them the last period free. They still need to be as quiet as possible and can’t leave the room, but he doesn’t require attention so all of them are in little groups all around the class, talking about their plans for summer. And Santorski is probably doing the same based on how he’s sitting with his legs on his desk, a phone in his hand and a smile on his face. Blaire knows exactly what the other end of that conversation looks like. Well, she can guess. Aaron wasn’t home from his yesterday’s date when she was leaving for school that morning.

She talks with Trish and Abby, but she doesn’t really pay attention to them. Ria is texting her now and again, moaning about Mrs. Nightingale, who’s still trying to make them learn. And really, that’s just not fair. When even Santorski gets it, how can Nightingale not?

“Okay, class. It’s five minutes till the bell rings, so you’re dismissed. I don’t want to see either one of you till September. Except you, miss Fitz, please, stay behind.”

Blaire almost snorts, before schooling her face and nodding. Trish and Abby both grimace at her, but she hardly notices. She packs her things painfully slow, so everyone is out by the time she gets to Santorski’s desk.

“You wanted to speak to me, mister Santorski?”

“I know I told you that we should keep this professional, but I spoke to Miss Costella. She agreed to give me the other class than yours in your grade. So I think this is going to be easier for both of us if you just call me Michael.”

“Kay. Well, you should call me Blaire, then. Would make the family dinners easier.” Blaire’s grinning, but Sant… Michael winces. “I was joking.”

“Yeah, well… Aaron said your dad wants to meet me. Dinner.”

“Yeah, dad has a thing about them. He doesn’t really have the time to spend with us, but dinner… dinner is family time.”

“Great. That doesn’t sound threatening at all.”

“Are you… nervous?”

San… Michael (dammit) gives her one long, unimpressed look. Blaire giggles.

“You are! Oh my God, that is so romantic!”

“What? How did you… No. It’s not and I’m… yeah, okay, I’m nervous, shut up.”

“I’m sure you shouldn’t talk to us pupils like that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s after semester, so you’re no longer my pupil, just annoying little sister of my boyfriend. Anyway, so… Aaron talked about dinner, but your father is like… a big thing, right? So, what do I tell him? What do you guys even talk about during dinner? What should I wear?”

“You’re asking me? Shouldn’t you ask Aaron?” Don’t take her wrong, she’s enjoying seeing Michael that nervous, but she thinks he would rather talk to her brother. Michael just glares. “What?”

“Your brother found my nervousness very amusing and was no help at all.”

“Yup, that’s Aaron. Look, whatever you’d wear for school is cool. Actually, you could wear Aaron’s swim trunks and it would be improvement since the last boyfriend.”

“That’s not helping.”

“Come on.” Blaire just laughs. “It’s gonna be fine. You’re clever, funny and Aaron adores you.”

“I didn’t want a pep talk, I wanted information.”

“Yeah, well, there’s information. Stop stressing about daddy, cause that’s not gonna help you win him over. Stop thinking about good topic of conversation, because if your partner is right, even talk about weather can be interesting and reveal new things you didn’t know before. And… daddy likes wine. Expensive, red wine. Not the Tesco ones, the real wine.”

“And how would you know the real wine from the Tesco one?”

“Daddy always grumbles.”

***

Aaron spends a lot of time at Michael’s. It’s just easier to go there after their dates and sometimes to just be lazy in the apartment. So yeah, he spends lots of time there.

But he decides to go home the afternoon Michael’s supposed to come for dinner. It’s mostly because Michael is obviously nervous, trying to pretend that he’s not and yet both of them are driving each other nuts. They probably spent too much time together in the last few days. Aaron storms off after Michael snaps at him to sit down for a minute and it’s only after a few moments that he decides to fire a text Michael’s way.

_You’re still expected on time, asshole. Go for a run or whatever makes you weirdos happy, I’ll be there when you arrive_

He doesn’t really expect reply, but one comes anyway.

_I’m sorry_

_He rolls his eyes, but just goes home without sending anything else back._

He helps Mel with the dinner and suffers her teasing when he lets the bowl slip through his fingers and suddenly there’s flour everywhere.

So yeah, he’s also nervous and he might have also overreacted a little bit.

_I’m sorry, too. I’m looking forward to tonight_

With that he lets the phone in the living room and goes back to the kitchen. Turns out Blaire is sitting on the table and gossiping with Mel about… Michael, obviously. He tries to stop them, but his Spanish is broken at least, unrecognizable at worst and he’s not really having a great time at the moment.

Mel leaves just after five with instruction to let the meat in the oven, but turn it down in a few minutes. Aaron then goes to change and tries hard to ignore Blaire’s snickering.

Now that Mel’s gone she’s back to English and Aaron’s starting to think that the Spanish thing was better.

“Still, it’s weird to call him Michael.”

“Who said you can call him Michael?”

“He did.” She’s smirking and Aaron hates it. “He’s really nervous about today, isn’t he?”

“We both are. We were getting on each other’s nerves, so I just…”

“Decided to boil on him.”

“I didn’t boil. We need space. We spent almost all our time together since I moved here and we’re not even that long together. It’s gotten too… much.”

Blaire’s just looking at him for a while.

“He’s still coming over, right?”

“No, I was going crazy in the kitchen over dinner just for you. Of course he’s coming over. We had a fight, didn’t break up.”

“Sue me for being young,” she rolls her eyes before finally un-attaching herself from his doorway. “I’m gonna change. He’s wearing his school clothes, by the way.”

“What? What did you do?!”

“He wanted an advice!”

Now Aaron’s more nervous than he was before. But at the same time, he can’t help but smile. It’s silly and childish of him, but Michael cared enough to ask Blaire for advice, that means something, right?

He wants to go open the door, but Blaire’s at the door basically the moment Michael rings the bell. Aaron rolls his eyes, but walks slowly to them.

“Let him live, you little brat.”

When Michael looks up, his smile gets smaller, but it doesn’t fall completely.

“Hey there,” Aaron adds with a smile.

“Hey yourself.”

They’re not really kissing, but Michael does pull him closer by the waist and Aaron rests his hand on Michael’s shoulder. But before they can actually kiss, Blaire next to them snickers and Aaron groans. Michael rests his forehead on Aaron’s and laughs quietly.

“Your sister’s watching us.”

“Yes.”

“That’s creepy.”

“Yes, yes it is.” He says that with a look to Blaire. She just shrugs.

“Kay. Then I’ll go for dad.”

Michael tenses a little and Aaron could slap her, but instead they both straighten and watch her go.

“So… what do you got here?”

“Wine. Blaire said your dad likes it…?”

“As long as it’s not store bought.”

“No. I paid awful lot for that bottle in some little corner shop that calls itself wine cellar just so they can add a few zeros to the prize.”

“Did you ask for help?”

“Told the man inside I need the best thing affordable by high school teacher he can sell me. He’s very naïve about how much high school teachers earn.”

Aaron laughs out loud this time. He has a sarcastic remark about how Michael possibly paid for shitty wine considering he doesn’t know a thing about it, but he refrains. Michael’s trying to look relaxed and Aaron doesn’t want to make it worse for him. Plus, he still remembers clearly their earlier fight and doesn’t want to repeat it any time soon.

“I’m sure it will be fine. You look great, by the way. I almost forgot how much I like you in a suit pants and a shirt.”

Michael smiles at him. Before he can answer though Blaire’s back with dad.

“Why are we still in the hall?” He has his professional serious face on and Aaron kinda wants to say something about it and really, really wants to roll his eyes. Michael lets go of him and makes a small step to the side and as much as Aaron hates it, he gets it. Dad can look more dangerous than he really is.

“We were waiting for you, Michael bought you a gift. Dad, this is Michael Santorski, my boyfriend. Michael, this is Alexander Fitz, my dad.”

“Good evening, mister Fitz. It’s nice to meet you, Aaron told me a lot about you.”

“Did he, now?” He’s looking stern but Aaron can see the amusement. He’s sure Michael can’t. “Nice to meet you, too, mister Santorski.”

Aaron watches with growing horror how they shake their hands. Both of their faces are almost stone cold and he can see Blaire hiding her laughter behind her hand. That much for her helping him.

“As I said, Michael has a gift for you, dad. Right?” He raises his eyebrows at him. Michael nods quickly.

“Right. I hope you like it.”

His dad is impressed with the wine and Aaron’s really proud of Michael.

“Marques de Riscal, Rioja Reserva. That’s… very good wine.”

“I’m glad.” Michael smiles and Aaron can see that he’s actually more relaxed than he was a minute ago. “I wouldn’t know the difference, but I left a nice tip to the person who recommended it to me.”

Aaron could kiss Michael right then and there. Dad hates people who are trying to act like they’re something they’re not and people who refuse to admit their mistakes. Michael just kind of did both in a fun way and Aaron can see the beginning of dad’s smile, even though he tries to mask it.

“I’ll just go put it in the cellar then. Would you like some wine for dinner, Michael?”

Aaron has to bite his lip to not snicker. Blaire’s not so quick. One good wine and Michael already went from last to first name.

“Anything that Aaron’s having is good for me. Thank you, mister Fitz.”

And another good points for not following dad’s example. Really, why were they so nervous?

Dad just nods and heads to the cellar while Blaire goes to the dining room to prepare the table. Michael looks at Aaron with a question in his eyes.

“Dad’s taste is really expensive, that wine had to cost you a fortune.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Michael-”

“It’s okay.” He sounds more amused than anything else. “I wanted to spend the money that way. I know what your dad’s opinion means to you.”

Aaron smiles a little shyly at that.

“Yeah, well…”

“Don’t worry about it. Can we go now?”

Aaron leaves Michael in the dining room with Blaire and goes to the kitchen to prepare the food. Mel already did most of the cooking, but he needs to prepare it for serving. He gets all of it on a trail and takes it to the dining room. By then dad’s already in his own seat, Blaire’s by his right hand and Michael left the seat by his left hand for Aaron, sitting on the one next to it. Aaron’s not sure if it’s out of respect or fear, but he takes it.

“What are we talking about?”

“You,” Blaire replies cheekily before either Michael or dad have a chance to do so.

“Oh, what is it?” he asks with a fake enthusiasm. “My great looks, my charming personality?”

“Your modesty,” replies dad and Aaron can see how much he has to concentrate on not smiling. Aaron rolls his eyes and serves the food.

“We’re having Papa rellena, hope you like Cuban cuisine.”

“Can’t say I’ve had it before.”

“Then you’re in for a treat.”

“That’s right, Mel’s the best cook in the world.”

Aaron wants to tease Blaire about that time when she was five when she refused to eat anything other than macaroni and cheese and it didn’t matter that Mel really is the best cook in the world, but he doesn’t. He really doesn’t want to say anything that would make the evening even more uncomfortable than it already is.

He serves the food before sitting down. Only then does dad reach out for his knife and fork.

“Bon appetite.”

“¡Buen provecho!“ replies Blaire before Aaron can reply. He can see Michael being slightly confused, but when Aaron replies in French, he follows his lead. Aaron can see how it can be confusing, but he knows Blaire did that just because their food is Cuban today. Other days she also replies in French.

“Wow,” Michael exclaims the moment he finishes his first bite and Aaron can see that he didn’t mean to do that by the way his shoulders tense the next moment. “This is great.”

“Right? It’s filled with picadillo and Mel’s finally letting me in on the family secret – she adds just a little bit of white wine to the stuffing, and then you need to balance the seasoning.”

“Should you be telling us when it’s family secret?”

“Please, dad hasn’t cooked in ages, Blaire’s able to burn a water and we both know how your last attempt at cooking went.”

“Hey! That…,” Michael quickly glances at dad before lowering his voice, “was not my fault and you know it. I make a killer pasta with cheese sauce.”

“And yet I still haven’t tried it. Besides – a little bit of wine would fuck up the seasoning if you did it by any online recipe, so no, technically, I told you all nothing.”

The dinner is… well, it could be worse. The conversation is tense, Blaire’s having a great time and Aaron is basically done with both his sister and his father halfway through.

And when dad asks about Michael’s reaction to gay marriage being legal in all fifty states now, he almost spills his drink. He shuts down that course of conversation quickly, but not quick enough, so Michael almost chokes on his food, so… yeah, that’s great.

But mostly it seems like dad likes Michael. They talk politics, history and even a little bit law together before the conversation somehow turns to movies currently in cinemas and Michael and Blaire argue about how much sense Hunger games make in the historical context… or something. Aaron’s mostly impressed by Blaire’s debate skills. He knows she thinks she’s great at it, but he never saw it that way. Until now.

“Okay, so, Mel already prepared desert and you’re not going anywhere without me reminding you how a true coffee tastes like. I know you had it, because Blaire gave a thermos of it to you, so you have no excuse for the leaf-y sh-stuff you keep in your apartment and call it a coffee.”

Michael snorts, but nods.

“You want some help?”

“It’s okay. Dad, you want coffee, too?”

When his dad nods, he takes the empty plates and takes them to the kitchen. It’s time to do some coffee and prepare the dessert Mel did.

The coffee maker barely starts making the first cup when Blaire comes into the kitchen. Aaron glares at her.

“What? Daddy sent me to help you.”

“Yeah, that’s why I didn’t ask you. I wanted you to stay there.”

“To do what, exactly?”

“I don’t know. Stop dad from his annoying, if well-meant questions?”

“As if that would stop him. Seriously, the only reason why he didn’t follow on the question on the marriage was that the two of you refused to look at each other after it for at least five minutes. It was hilarious!”

“No, it wasn’t. And if you really have to be here then help. You know how dad takes his coffee, right? Michael takes his with just a spoon of sugar.”

“It’s really sweet how you already know each other so well.”

“Shut up.”

He’s worried about how it will look when they come back, but he doesn’t go right away. He knows that right now he’d just make it worse. Whatever dad wants to tell Michael, he will tell him now and Aaron can’t stop him.

“Stop looking so worried, he won’t bite him.”

“That would actually be much better than the grilling he usually does.”

Aaron’s frowning so much he barely notices Blaire making a face at him.

“Yeah, because the boy and the two girls you took home were all assholes. Michael’s cool. Mel did flan de coco?!” Her eyes sparkle when she looks at the desert and Aaron smiles. She’s loved the thing since she was five.

“She finished before you got here.”

“Yeah, and you refused to tell me what the desert is gonna be.” She pouts for a while, but Aaron can see right through it. “Do we have a lemonade?”

“A fresh bunch is in the fridge.”

He finishes the preparations and puts everything on the trail once more. A long time ago he thought it was pretentious having something like that when you have only three people in the house, but the truth is that it comes really handy when you have the dining room separated from your kitchen.

“You done with the coffee?”

Blaire rolls her eyes at him, but doesn’t say anything and puts three cups on the tray.

“Come on, then, let’s make sure your boyfriend is still breathing.”

“Just wait till you bring your own boyfriend, lil’ sis.”

He takes the trail and lets Blaire open the door to the dining room. To his surprise, Michael looks truly relaxed now and dad’s not really hiding his small smile anymore. Aaron can admit that this is unexpected.

“Mel did Flan de coco!” Blaire informs them with a bright smile. Aaron rolls his eyes, starts putting things from the tray to the table and notices Michael’s curious glance.

“It’s a custard with a coconut topping and it’s pretty good.” Aaron actually prefers the caramel one, but he doesn’t have any strong feelings towards it unlike Blaire.

“Dive into it,” says dad with his eyes on Blaire, who happily complies. Michael waits for Aaron to sit down. Aaron raises eyebrows at him and Michael slightly shakes his head.

The conversation is much more relaxed now, even though dad mostly just listens to them and comments just occasionally. And Michael is now relaxed enough for him to press his leg against Aaron’s under the table. Michael seems to enjoy the desert just fine but he’s highly amused by Blaire’s excitement. As are Aaron and dad.

“Okay, kids, I think that was enough awkwardness for one evening, so I’m gonna take the rest of my coffee to my office.” He already finished his desert. “Michael, it was nice meeting you. You should come again before Aaron will fly out to Harvard.”

“Thank you, mister Fitz, that would be nice.”

Dad takes the longer way so he can squeeze Aaron’s shoulder and Aaron just smiles. Michael’s right, dad’s opinion really means a lot to him. It’s part of the reason why he broke up with the partners he introduced to dad not long after their meeting. He knew Michael would do much better, but knowing he has his dad’s approval is… a great feeling, really.

“He’s… not so bad.”

“I told ya.” Blaire smiles at Michael brightly. Aaron frowns.

“Okay, I need the two of you to stop collaborating behind my back.”

“Why? Afraid she’ll tell me something I shouldn’t know?” Michael’s smiling at him, so he knows he doesn’t mean it in any mean way.

“I don’t think she knows something you don’t already know about.” Aaron frowns, deep in thoughts.

“What about that time when dad came home early from his business trip and caught you and your then-boyfriend in the living room?”

“His name’s Christoph and he was not his boyfriend, it was only a one time thing.”

Blaire glares at them for a while with her mouth slightly open.

“How… how do you know that? I don’t even know that.”

“Yeah, what a shocker that I don’t tell my little sister every single detail about my love life.” Aaron rolls his eyes. He is a little surprised that Michael remembers those details, they talked about it only once.

“Whatever, losers, I’m done with my desert and the lemonade so I’m not gonna third wheel you. Enjoy.”

“Clear after yourself, Blaire!”

“Bite me.”

But she does pick up the plate and the glass and takes it to the kitchen. The moment she’s away Aaron turns so he’s facing Michael.

“So… you look pretty relaxed now. After you and dad talked.”

“Yep. I knew it was coming, so it was good to leave it behind.”

“What exactly was coming?” Aaron frowns a little bit. Michael just looks at him, unimpressed.

“Your father is one of the best DAs in the LA history, he clearly loves you very much and you’re going out with a guy who’s seven years older than you. I knew I was coming for an interrogation.”

“Six and a half,” murmured Aaron. Which reminds him that he should probably look around for a gift, Michael’s birthday is coming. “So… what did he ask about?”

“Wouldn’t you want to know?”

“Yeah, that’s why I asked.”

By now Michael’s also facing him, their knees are touching and they each have the rest of the coffee in their hands.

“He asked about my family, if I pay any loans, where I see myself in five years…”

“Isn’t that like… an interview for a job thing?”

“I think this time around he just wanted to hear that I still plan to be with you.”

“Oh.” Sure, Aaron’s not planning to break up with him ever, if possible, but… they’re still only a few months into their relationship. Asking about their plans in five years seems a little bit… farfetched. “So… what did you say?”

“That I like my job just fine, it’s paying really well and the pupils aren’t that bad in general. And considering you’re gonna be three thousand miles away for at least next three years I can’t be sure it will work out. But that I probably wouldn’t mind that much leaving my job if you couldn’t find a job here but found it somewhere else. High school teachers are needed everywhere, right?”

Aaron just looks at him for a while before quickly standing up.

“Wait a minute. Just… wait for me, okay?”

He goes to dad’s office. Dad’s reading something, so he knocks before entering. Dad looks a little bit surprised.

“Michael already went home?”

“No, not yet. But I’m gonna go with him, so don’t wait on me.”

Dad smiles and nods, but Aaron still lingers in the office. He can guess that Michael told him the most important part, but still…

“What did you ask him?”

“Why, is he too scared? He looked okay.”

“No, he’s not scared. I am. Kinda. What the hell did you talk about?” Dad laughs a little at that.

“Don’t worry about it. Just… normal questions.”

“Normal questions about his debt?”

“He’s an adult with a college degree. If you guys want to have shared finances, we should know about his situation. And he is an adult, Aaron. In his age he isn’t looking for a short, fun relationship, he wants to settle down.”

Aaron blinks a few times, surprised. Is dad… protective of Michael?

“So do I.”

“Then you understand my questions about finances or the future. We can deal with all sorts of debt if we know about it in time, but we need to know about it.”

“You know, I don’t really feel comfortable with you referring to my relationship with him as we.”

Dad laughs at that.

“No we in your relationship. I’ll just help with the money.”

“Dad, I will need to become independent eventually.”

“Yes, but there’s no need for you to take a loan for that when I have enough money to make sure you can start your life without a debt for school and with a good flat.”

“Thanks, dad,” he smiles at him. He would hug him, but dad’s still sitting behind his table, so he’s not gonna do that. “We’re heading out now. Maybe next time we can do the dinner without all the tension.”

“Hopefully.”

Aaron smiles and waves his goodbyes before going back to dining room.

“You done with the coffee?”

“Sure. You have somewhere to be?”

“Yeah. Your bed,” he winks at him and takes the dishes to the kitchen. “You ready to go?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for sticking with my story till the very end. All feedback will be appreciated.  
> I'm sorry for the little bit of Spanish. I used google and don't know a word of it, so if it's terrible then I'm sorry.
> 
> I'm also thinking about few bonus scenes, so let me know if you're interested in reading them, too =o)


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